Polymarket has removed a market on its international platform that let users trade on whether any of seven male defendants named in a Cornell University sexual assault lawsuit will be charged with a felony sex crime, according to Front Office Sports, which updated its October 19, 2026 report to state that the company removed the market following the story's initial publication. The New York Post reported the same day that Polymarket took the page for the bet offline after the Post contacted the company seeking comment. Two independent outlets reporting the removal make the takedown confirmed; neither report included a Polymarket statement explaining the removal or stating how open positions in the market will be settled.
The market was not available on Polymarket's United States app and was first made available on September 30, 2026, according to Front Office Sports. It was set to close on January 31, 2027, and as of early Monday afternoon, October 19, 2026, it had drawn $451,633 in trading volume, with traders pricing a roughly 28 percent chance that the market would resolve to yes, according to Front Office Sports and the New York Post. Polymarket's own market context, quoted by Front Office Sports before the removal, put the chance of no felony sex crime charges against any of the seven defendants at nearly 73 percent as of early Monday afternoon, October 19, 2026.
Front Office Sports first reported the listing, and a Polymarket spokesperson defended it to that outlet early Monday afternoon, before the removal. The spokesperson said markets bring objective, data driven insight into how a matter like this is moving through the legal system, on a topic the company said deserves more transparency and honest attention, according to Front Office Sports. The New York Post reported that Polymarket defended the contract on similar information grounds when it sought comment.
The backlash was led by sexual assault advocates who targeted the venue's celebrity endorsement roster, not only the listing itself. Attorney Cheyenne Hunt called the market dehumanizing, disgusting, and dangerous in an Instagram post and asked celebrity ambassadors whether they want to be associated with it, according to Front Office Sports and the New York Post. The advocacy nonprofit I Have The Right To asked what kind of culture looks at sexual violence and sees an opportunity for profit, according to both outlets. A petition circulated under the banner No Gambling on Gang Rape singled out endorsers including LeBron James, Eli Manning, Derek Jeter, Emily Ratajkowski and Alexandra Daddario, according to the New York Post. Front Office Sports reported last month that James is being paid $15 million a year to promote Polymarket, and listed Derek Jeter, Eli Manning, Sue Bird, Reggie Bush and Richard Sherman among the athletes who have endorsed the company or appeared in a recent commercial for it. Representatives for the athletes did not immediately respond to requests for comment, according to Front Office Sports.
Rival venue Kalshi drew a public line between its list and Polymarket's. Asked about the Cornell market, Kalshi spokesperson Elisabeth Diana told Front Office Sports, we would not consider it. Front Office Sports also reported that Kalshi has made a public push to show that it bans markets on topics like war, death, assassination and kidnapping, after facing criticism earlier this year over a market on whether Iran's former supreme leader Ali Khamenei would be out as leader before March 1, 2026.
The underlying case is a civil lawsuit filed September 16, 2026 in which a plaintiff identified as Jane Doe alleges she was drugged and sexually assaulted at Cornell's Chi Phi fraternity house in 2024, according to Front Office Sports and the New York Post. The allegations have not been established in court, the New York Post noted. The Tompkins County district attorney declined to bring criminal charges in 2024 and has since reopened the investigation, according to both outlets, and Cornell says its disciplinary proceedings produced sanctions that included suspensions and expulsions, according to Front Office Sports. This article reports the contract and its removal as a market structure story; it does not report the lawsuit's allegations as proven facts.
The venue distinction is the regulatory core of the story. The Cornell contract traded only on Polymarket's international platform, which operates separately from its United States platform, a federally regulated exchange overseen by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, according to Front Office Sports. Front Office Sports noted earlier criticism of international only Polymarket markets, including a market on whether Nancy Guthrie's kidnapper would be arrested by February 28, 2026 and markets last season on whether an object would be thrown on the court during WNBA games. As of early Monday afternoon, October 19, 2026, the international site also separately carried a market on whether Cornell president Michael Kotlikoff will be out by October 31, 2026, with more than $10,000 traded and an 8 percent price on his departure as of that same time, according to Front Office Sports; the reports checked do not state whether that market remains listed after the charges market was removed.
Analysis: The removal exposes a listing standards gap that sits inside one brand. The same company runs a CFTC overseen United States exchange, where a contract like this was never offered, and an international platform where it traded for nearly three weeks and accumulated $451,633 before press attention, not an internal review, ended it, according to Front Office Sports and the New York Post. Alex Goldenberg, a senior fellow at Rutgers University's Miller Center for Community Protection and Resilience, told the New York Post that endorsing an exchange is different from endorsing a sneaker, because the product is the set of questions the company chooses to ask. Watch for three follow ups: whether Polymarket publishes the listing rule the contract violated or confirms the removal was discretionary, how the $451,633 in open positions is settled, and whether any endorser distances themselves from the platform. Until the company states a rule, the confirmed facts are narrow: the market existed, two outlets reported it, advocates objected, Kalshi said it would not list it, and Polymarket took it down.