Polymarket launched Squads, a group chat and social trading feature that lets users discuss markets, share positions, and trade together within its US app. The feature launched with a football advertising campaign featuring LeBron James and other athletes. Squads adds a social layer to the CFTC-regulated prediction market platform as it competes for active traders. The product was announced September 8, 2026 and is available to US users.

Polymarket is betting that social trading converts casual sports fans into recurring event-contract traders faster than solo market interfaces. Squads lets users see friends' positions in real time, creating viral loops that organic marketing cannot replicate. The LeBron James campaign drives awareness; Squads captures the users who arrive curious but need peer validation to fund their first trade. Kalshi and Robinhood lack comparable in-app social layers, giving Polymarket a temporary feature edge it must exploit before competitors copy or surpass it. The combined launch also tests whether celebrity-driven acquisition can sustain engagement without continuous star spending. If friend-group trading fails to retain users, Polymarket will have burned two expensive levers for a spike that flatlines.