Americans pledge trust in prediction markets and sportsbooks
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Americans trust certain prediction markets, trading platforms and sportsbooks more than some of the country's blue-chip corporations, though men are less likely to trust them than women.
Why it matters: Burgeoning gambling culture is fostering a nation of risk takers, prompting a debate over predatory practices, healthy behavior and the state of the economy.
Driving the news: Polymarket — the offshore prediction market that is slowly expanding into the U.S. — notched a higher reputation ranking in the 2026 Axios Harris Poll 100 at No. 45 than companies like Verizon, Ford, Target, Uber, Disney and Bank of America.
- Investment platform Robinhood — which offers prediction market services through Kalshi — ranked at No. 42.
- DraftKings, one of the two leading sportsbooks by market share, ranked No. 66, slightly behind Robinhood and Polymarket but ahead of companies like AT&T, McDonald's and Wells Fargo.
- The trust score for Robinhood (76.4 out of 100) was "very good" under the Harris rating system, while the scores for DraftKings (70) and Polymarket (73.9) registered as "good."
Zoom in: Trust in risk-taking platforms like Polymarket and DraftKings may stem from a view that they are vehicles to grow wealth in a difficult economy, even as experts say most gamblers and prediction market traders lose money.
- 64% of Gen Z and millennials say "the only realistic way to build significant wealth is 'alternative methods' such as crypto, gambling or retail stocks," according to Harris.
The intrigue: Women are more likely to trust these platforms than men, according to Harris.
- For example, Polymarket got a 79.7 trust score from women and a 73.8 score from men, while DraftKings got a 74.5 from women and a 71.9 from men.
- Young men are "realizing itʼs costing them both money and friendships," Harris says, "a trust gap that reflects who's been burned."
The bottom line: "The harms of sports gambling are disproportionately concentrated among younger men, and so the prediction markets are clearly the new frontier in this conversation about sports gambling," Jonathan Cohen, policy lead at the American Institute for Boys and Men, said in a recent interview.
Go deeper: Explore the full Axios Harris Poll 100 rankings and methodology
