AFCON Tournament: Gamma API marks ended matches and eliminated teams as active/accepting orders

[boniface]

Summary

Several sports markets that are not live on polymarket.com are still reported by the Gamma API as active=true, closed=false, and
acceptingOrders=true. This makes it impossible for SDK consumers to reliably hide finished games or eliminated teams without heuristics.

Environment

• SDK: polymarket-client-sdk v0.4.1
• Endpoint: https://gamma-api.polymarket.com/markets/slug/{slug}
• Time (UTC): 2026-01-14T19:56:01Z

Steps to Reproduce

1. GET https://gamma-api.polymarket.com/markets/slug/acn-sen-egy-2026-01-14-total-1pt5
2. GET https://gamma-api.polymarket.com/markets/slug/acn-sen-egy-2026-01-14-btts
3. GET https://gamma-api.polymarket.com/markets/slug/will-egypt-win-the-caf-africa-cup-of-nations-morocco-2025

Observed

All three return active=true, closed=false, acceptingOrders=true.

acn-sen-egy-2026-01-14-total-1pt5 (UTC 2026-01-14T19:56:01Z)

{
"slug": "acn-sen-egy-2026-01-14-total-1pt5",
"active": true,
"closed": false,
"acceptingOrders": true,
"bestBid": null,
"bestAsk": "0.001",
"lastTradePrice": "0.001",
"events": [
{
"closed": false,
"ended": null,
"live": null,
"gameStatus": null,
"startTime": "2026-01-14T17:00:00Z",
"endDate": "2026-01-14T17:00:00Z"
}
]
}

acn-sen-egy-2026-01-14-btts (UTC 2026-01-14T19:56:01Z)

{
"slug": "acn-sen-egy-2026-01-14-btts",
"active": true,
"closed": false,
"acceptingOrders": true,
"bestBid": null,
"bestAsk": "0.001",
"lastTradePrice": "0.001",
"events": [
{
"closed": false,
"ended": null,
"live": null,
"gameStatus": null,
"startTime": "2026-01-14T17:00:00Z",
"endDate": "2026-01-14T17:00:00Z"
}
]
}

will-egypt-win-the-caf-africa-cup-of-nations-morocco-2025 (UTC 2026-01-14T19:56:01Z)

{
"slug": "will-egypt-win-the-caf-africa-cup-of-nations-morocco-2025",
"active": true,
"closed": false,
"acceptingOrders": true,
"bestBid": null,
"bestAsk": "0.001",
"lastTradePrice": "0.001",
"outcomePrices": ["0.0005", "0.9995"],
"umaResolutionStatus": "proposed",
"automaticallyResolved": null
}

Expected

• Finished games should have clear status flags (closed=true, ended=true, or acceptingOrders=false).
• Eliminated team winner markets should be marked closed/resolved or explicitly flagged.
• If such flags exist, please document them for SDK consumers.

Impact

Third‑party apps using the official SDK cannot reliably match Polymarket’s UI without heuristics. This causes stale/ended markets to appear live/
tradable.

Notes

Polymarket.com does not show these markets as live, but Gamma still reports them as open.

[simonpolymarket]

1. What do you mean "Several sports markets that are not live on polymarket.com"?
2. A market is closed only when a proposal is considered finalized with zero disputes. Those markets probably did not have a finalized proposal at the time
3. Please check https://docs.polymarket.com/polymarket-learn/markets/how-are-markets-resolved

[boniface]

Hi @simonpolymarket,

Thanks for the response and the link. Just to clarify what I meant by “not live on polymarket.com”. I’m not expecting closed=true immediately when a live match ends between say opponent A and B with the final results known. I understand from the UMA flow that a market is only “closed” once the proposal is finalized with no disputes. However, my point is narrower and about SDK/Polymarket UI parity and tradability signals:

• At the timestamp in the report I provided (2026-01-14T19:56:01Z), these markets were not shown/treated as live/tradable in the Polymarket UI (e.g., finished match / eliminated team context).
• However, the Gamma market payload, even after several minutes after the live event had ended and result known, still reported them as active=true, closed=false, and acceptingOrders=true, and the embedded events[] fields don’t expose any reliable “ended/live/status” info (ended/live/gameStatus are null, closed=false, and endDate equals startTime).

So the question I’m trying to answer for SDK consumers is:

1. What is the canonical API signal to determine whether a market is currently accepting orders / tradable (in the same way the Polymarket UI treats it)?

   • Is acceptingOrders expected to remain true until UMA finalization, even after a live match is finished and the the final result known?
   • Or should acceptingOrders flip to false (or another flag change) when the market is no longer supposed to take new orders?

2. If “match ended / team eliminated” is intentionally not represented by closed, where should clients get that status?

   • Is there another documented field (e.g., enableOrderBook, fpmmLive, or a sports status endpoint/feed) that clients should use instead?

Are you able confirm the intended semantics of acceptingOrders (and/or point to the correct flags to use)?

I hope this helps clarify the issue.

Thanks again.

[simonpolymarket]

Q: What is the canonical API signal to determine whether a market is currently accepting orders / tradable (in the same way the Polymarket UI treats it)?
A: acceptingOrders being true.

Q: If “match ended / team eliminated” is intentionally not represented by closed, where should clients get that status?
A: Your own sports provider is probably best. Or you can write some heuristics based on price action, but it is fragile.

[simonpolymarket]

Actually, you can use the ended field on the event to see if the actual real life sports event is considered finished, Polymarket aside. Keep in mind however this may fluctuate, have latency, and/or may not be entirely accurate, but I think that this is what you're looking for.