Polymarket Appoints Goldman Sachs Partner to Lead Institutional Growth
The prediction market platform Polymarket has appointed Lisa Mantil, who has nearly 30 years of experience at Goldman Sachs, as the head of institutional growth, aiming to channel Wall Street funds into the platform and expand its institutional business. The company officially announced this appointment on Tuesday after confirming it to CNBC.
Mantil was previously a partner at Goldman Sachs and served as the global head of the ETF Accelerator, responsible for helping clients bring investment products to market. She stated that joining Polymarket presents an opportunity to participate in the shaping of an asset class at a turning point, and she will continue to help institutions adopt new products and enter new markets, embedding prediction contracts into investment and risk management. Founder and CEO Shayne Coplan noted that Mantil's experience and relationships in the institutional space are sufficient to support the next phase of expansion, revealing that this is Mantil's second employer in her career, and the two were introduced by Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon.
Since its official launch on the US exchange in May, Polymarket has been continuously expanding, having appointed Warren Jenson, who previously worked at Amazon, Delta Airlines, and Nielsen, as CFO earlier this month. The prediction market was primarily driven by retail investors betting on sports-related contracts, but platforms are now shifting to compete for institutional liquidity. Kalshi completed the industry's first large transaction in April; Polymarket's international platform subsequently completed its first large transaction and partnered with crypto prime broker FalconX to handle over-the-counter large orders.
Brokerages working with early institutional clients stated that the company is also discussing conducting large transactions on a regulated platform in the US, with related capabilities nearing readiness, though Polymarket did not comment on specific progress. Institutional adoption is still in its early stages, with some funds waiting due to disputes between states and the platform over regulatory authority for sports event contracts. Mantil's product direction is set to serve banks, asset management, and corporate clients for pricing and hedging related to elections, interest rates, and geopolitical events.
Mechanically, this represents a liquidity upgrade following the retail market: the buyers are institutions needing large transactions, dark pool execution, and compliant product packaging, while the sellers are prediction exchanges turning event contracts into hedging tools. Funds are shifting from sports retail to risk management accounts for elections, interest rates, and macro events. The beneficiaries are platforms that first establish large transaction channels and Wall Street relationships, while the pressured parties are similar platforms still relying on retail order books and unable to handle block trades; regulatory tug-of-war will determine whether this institutional capital remains on international chains or enters US compliant markets.
Source: Public Information
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Mantil's main role at Goldman Sachs was not on the trading desk, but rather to turn client needs into marketable ETF packaging lines. The essence of the ETF Accelerator is to help institutions navigate product committees, legal opinions, and distribution networks, transforming non-standard exposures into on-exchange shares. Her move to Polymarket effectively transfers the same "new product entry" capabilities to event contracts: banks and asset managers are not looking for the next sports bet, but for pricing and hedging tools that can be included in investment policy statements. David Solomon's introduction indicates that at least some within Goldman Sachs view prediction markets as the next type of exposure that can be productized, rather than marginal gambling.
The capital path is to first acquire people and relationships, then buy execution channels. The international platform has already executed large transactions through FalconX, while the US platform is still in the final stages; Jenson's hiring addresses financial reporting and public company-level internal controls, while Mantil fills the buyer's contact list. The specific destinations for the funds are clear: hedging accounts for elections, interest rates, and geopolitical events, as well as potential future "prediction exposure packaging products." The motivation is to translate retail-validated price discovery into risk modules that institutions can order, otherwise trading volume will remain tied to the seasonality of sports.
The contrast is clear: Kalshi has completed the first large transaction on the US side, following the regulated event contract exchange path; Polymarket, on the other hand, is first executing large orders on the international chain, with the US licensed platform to follow. The industry's position has shifted from "retail making the market active" to "who will become the execution venue for institutions first." This is similar to how Bitcoin transitioned from retail exchanges to ETF pathways—first there was price, then packaging, and finally allocation. What is currently lacking is not the variety of contracts, but trading blocks, custody interfaces, and compliant language.
Structurally, this represents a transfer of pricing power. The mechanism is: once the true probabilities of event outcomes can be used by institutions for hedging, pricing power shifts from the retail books of odds companies to platforms that can simultaneously provide continuous quotes and discreet large orders. Whoever controls the product entry into Wall Street can turn "who will win" into a risk factor on the balance sheet. The regulatory struggle over the jurisdiction of sports contracts essentially revolves around whether this pricing power belongs to state gambling systems or federal market systems.
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