On May 12, 2026, Polymarket ended its six-month US iOS waitlist, opening its platform to all American iPhone users without invitation codes for the first time since its re-entry into the market. This move followed a critical policy shift from Apple on May 8, which mandated that all fixed-odds betting apps in Brazil must possess a valid license from the Secretariat of Prizes and Bets (SPA) to remain on the App Store.

Together, these two shifts redefine the mobile “gatekeeping” rules in two of the world’s most watched gambling pipelines.

Polymarket lifts the US iOS waitlist

Polymarket’s US iOS rollout was gated for more than six months behind a waitlist that required either an invitation code from existing users or a sign-up via the formal queue. The May 12 change removed both. Opening the app now takes users straight to the home trading page, where event markets across sports, politics, and entertainment display with live trading prices. Sign-up no longer requires an access code.

The platform also runs an Android version, and the iOS app holds a 4.8-star average rating from more than 29,000 reviews on the App Store. Polymarket continues to offer a new-user deposit-match promotion as part of the US relaunch, alongside several third-party invitation codes that carry parallel sign-up bonuses.

But the relaunch lands at a complicated moment for prediction markets. Federal courts have ruled in Polymarket competitor Kalshi’s favour on Commodity Exchange Act preemption grounds in both the Third Circuit and (this week) the Arizona federal court, while state-court challenges in Massachusetts, Nevada, New Mexico, and Kentucky have pushed in the opposite direction. Polymarket itself was hit with a Brazilian block on May 4 under the country’s new CMN Resolution 5,298. The US iOS relaunch is one of the cleaner pieces of distribution news the company has had in 2026.

Apple Brazil policy requires an SPA licence

In Brazil, the “wild west” era of App Store distribution has ended. Apple’s new developer notice requires any app identifying as gambling products to submit a new version specifically to trigger a license verification process.

The results were immediate. On May 13, Superbet became the first operator to go live on the Brazilian App Store under the new policy. For the 78 SPA-licensed operators representing 138 brands, the App Store is no longer a restricted zone but a regulated one, where the government-issued license is the only valid key to entry.

Two channels, two regulatory directions

The contrast is the story. Polymarket’s iOS relaunch in the US opens distribution to a category that does not yet have a stable national legal framework, with federal preemption holding the line in some jurisdictions while state-by-state litigation continues. Apple’s Brazil policy opens distribution only to operators already inside a regulated national framework, with the SPA licence as the gatekeeper. One channel relies on federal preemption holding. The other channel relies on a national licensing regime working as designed.

For mobile distribution, that’s the framework operators in both markets are working with. Federal-preemption argument in the US. National-licence requirement in Brazil. Two routes onto the device.

What to watch next

Three calendar items frame the next phase. First, Polymarket’s daily-active-user numbers post-waitlist removal, which will signal whether the gated launch had been the actual constraint or whether brand awareness is the bigger limiter. Second, the rate at which the rest of the 78 SPA-licensed Brazilian operators clear Apple’s review and ship to the App Store. Third, whether Apple extends the SPA-style “national licence in App Store Connect” model to other regulated markets, which would reset the global distribution map for licensed sportsbook apps. The pattern is portable.