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Betting company Polymarket and online writing platform Substack announced a partnership this week to further entrench gambling in the world of journalism and, in Polymarket’s words, make journalism “better” with “live markets.”

Substack will now allow writers to embed prediction market data in their articles, with “native tools that make it easier to share, discuss, and debate prediction market data directly on Substack,” as the company’s co-founder and CEO Chris Best said in a post on the platform. Best said a pilot program the company has run since 2024 has led to one in five of Substack’s 250 highest-revenue publications embedding the data.

“Journalism is better when it’s backed by live markets,” Polymarket disturbingly wrote in a post on X announcing the partnership.

The post immediately sparked backlash, with journalists questioning the meaning of Polymarket’s post, and others expressing open disdain for the legitimization of prediction markets as part of journalism.

Prediction markets like those hosted on the Peter Thiel-backed Polymarket give users a platform to gamble on real-life events. These can range from outlandish occurrences — like whether Jesus Christ will come back to life by the end of next year — to very serious predictions, like bets on war, that blur legal limits as well as moral ones.

CNN Partners With a Gambling App That Lets You Wager on........

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