Polymarket has appointed Warren Jenson as its first chief financial officer, hiring a former Amazon finance chief as the prediction market operator scales its regulated exchange in the United States.
Jenson reports to founder and chief executive Shayne Coplan. The company announced the appointment on 10 September 2026. Jenson also sits on the boards of Ripple and Dropbox.
Fortune described him as a four-time Fortune 500 CFO. The role is new at Polymarket, which Coplan founded in 2020.
Jenson’s finance record
Jenson was CFO of Amazon from 1999 to 2002, during the company’s post-IPO expansion and the dot-com crash. Before Amazon he held the CFO role at Delta Air Lines, and earlier ran finance at NBC. After leaving Amazon he became CFO of Electronic Arts.
His later roles were in data and measurement. At LiveRamp he served as president, leading finance and international expansion. He most recently served as CFO of Nielsen.
“Warren has led finance at some of the most consequential companies in the world.”
Shayne Coplan, founder and CEO, Polymarket
Jenson said he was joining Coplan and the leadership team “to put the capital strategy and operating discipline in place” as the business grows.
Capital and the US exchange
Polymarket spent most of the past four years outside the US market. In January 2022 the company settled with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for offering unregistered event contracts, paid a $1.4 million civil penalty and blocked US users.
It began its route back in July 2025 by acquiring QCEX, a CFTC-licensed derivatives exchange and clearinghouse, for $112 million. The CFTC later cleared Polymarket to offer its contracts to US customers through intermediaries, and the company is now building out that regulated exchange.
Institutional money followed. In October 2025, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), owner of the New York Stock Exchange, agreed to invest up to $2 billion in Polymarket at an $8 billion pre-money valuation.
Valuation talks have moved quickly since. Bloomberg reported in April 2026 that Polymarket was in talks to raise $400 million at a $15 billion valuation. In August, Bloomberg and CNBC reported the company was seeking around $1 billion at a valuation above $20 billion.
Running a CFTC-regulated exchange and clearinghouse also brings financial resource, reporting and audit obligations that did not apply to Polymarket’s offshore platform. Jenson will oversee both the fundraising and those controls.
Pressure from sportsbooks and regulators
Much of the growth in US prediction markets has come from sports event contracts. That puts Polymarket and its main rival, Kalshi, in direct competition with licensed sportsbooks for the same customers.
Sportsbook operators have responded by moving into the product. FanDuel and DraftKings have both launched prediction market offerings, and brokerage Robinhood has added event contracts to its app.
Several US state gambling regulators argue that sports event contracts are unlicensed sports betting. Their objections include tax, integrity monitoring and consumer protection, since federally regulated contracts do not carry the state-level responsible gambling requirements, such as minimum age rules and self-exclusion schemes, that apply to licensed sportsbooks. Litigation between states and prediction market operators is ongoing.
Europe has been less open. Spain’s regulator blocked Kalshi and Polymarket in May 2026 as part of a licensing crackdown, and the Netherlands Gambling Authority (Kansspelautoriteit, KSA) has pursued Polymarket’s operator for remaining accessible after a ban. Malta and Gibraltar are among the few European jurisdictions studying a licensing framework for the product. Outside Europe, Brazil has banned prediction markets outright.
What comes next
The hire came days before IGT named Adam Chibib as CFO after Fabio Celadon stepped down.
At Polymarket, Jenson’s first test is closing and deploying new capital while the US exchange grows and state challenges to sports contracts move through the courts. Those rulings will decide how much of the US sports market Polymarket can legally serve, and what any new valuation is built on.
Source: Polymarket
