The French sport magazine France Football, which has run the Ballon d’Or award since 1956, has opened an investigation into a cluster of bets that called not only the winner but the exact order of the top five.
All 12 accounts, opened between October 1 and 20, backed the same finishing order for the 2026 men’s Ballon d’Or: Kane first, Kylian Mbappé second, Lamine Yamal third, Rodri fourth and Lionel Messi fifth.
An on-chain analysis of the wallets put deposits across the 12 accounts at about $309,000 and withdrawals at nearly $500,000. The first withdrawal was made 19 minutes after the result was announced.
One bettor, operating under the pseudonym kraben006, bought shares in a Kane win at 37 cents, sold them at 67 cents and reinvested the proceeds in markets tied to specific finishing positions, including Yamal placing third.
France Football stood by the validity of the vote itself, saying it considered the betting activity, rather than the ballot, to be the vulnerability requiring scrutiny.
“We take these allegations of results leaks and potentially fraudulent betting very seriously,” the magazine said in a statement.
