Thanks to a mistake by a UFC announcer, a trader made nearly 100x returns in less than a minute on decentralized betting platform Polymarket.
Tyrell Fortune picked up his first UFC win by defeating Marcin Tybura in Sunday's UFC heavyweight bout. But the event was not without drama. Cage announcer Bruce Buffer initially read the result in Tybura's favor, which lasted less than a minute before Buffer corrected the error.
Polymarket trader LlamaEnjoyer (also known as Verrissimus on X) took advantage of this mistake and turned approximately $676 into $67,000.
When Tybura was named the winner, his stock soared to 99 cents, while Fortune fell to around 1 cent. LlamaEnjoyer said they almost made a $100,000 bet on Tybura at 99 cents, but stopped when they realized something wasn't right. Instead, the trader bought $676 worth of Fortune stock for 1 cent. Seconds later, when UFC corrected the announcement, the stock immediately jumped to $1.
“I almost bought Tybura for 99 cents for $100,000. Stopped and realized something was wrong. Canceled my order and bought 1 cent stock instead. UFC corrected the winner seconds later. Easiest 100x ever,” Verrissimus said on X.
LlamaEnjoyer's quick thinking illustrates how quickly forecast market prices can fluctuate during live events, especially when major announcements are misinterpreted or misreported.
The incident also raises questions about how payments are handled when there is an error in the “source of truth” – the reference on which the outcome of a contract's settlement is relied upon -. Since the mistake originates from the UFC announcers, disputes over payment or contract resolution may arise even if the trader's actions are completely legal.
