Madeira, Portugal · Open to quant, trading and data roles

I measure prediction markets from the order book up.

I'm Afonso Martins, a data and full-stack engineer. My research desk has captured 2.63 billion order-book records from Polymarket and Kalshi with its own recorders, and in September it placed 1,092 real orders across 171 markets. I'm looking for quant research, trading and data engineering roles. EU citizen, happy to relocate, available now.

From the order book
HLE VS T1 · LCK PLAYOFFS · POLYMARKETHLE to win the matchG1T1G2T1G3HLEG4HLEG5HLE0¢25¢50¢75¢100¢08:0010:0012:0063.5¢ at the start19.5¢ at 0–2 downHLE won 3–2● bought HLE ● bought T1 · trades of $1k and up

Hanwha Life were 63.5¢ favourites against T1 and fell to 19.5¢ after losing the first two games, then won the next three. I replayed that morning from my own recording of the order book and 19,242 trades on Polygon.

Watch the replay

I like owning the whole problem.

I'm finishing a BSc in Software Engineering in Madeira, but most of what I know came from building products that had to work outside a classroom.

I've worked in real estate, creator marketing, esports and market data. That mix taught me to care about more than the code. I want to know who is opening the screen, what they need to decide and whether the product earns its cost.

I build end to end, from the first conversation to the database, API, interface and release, and these days I do it with AI coding agents. The rules they work under run as tests, so their code has to clear the same bar as mine. I also question my own work, and some of my best results were audits that caught a number before anyone relied on it.

That habit is now most of what I do. The research desk I run writes its hypothesis down before it looks at the data, keeps a complete dated record of every measurement, and only promotes a result that survives a confidence interval clustered the right way.


A few things I've taken from idea to working product.

01
Research desk · Prediction markets

21Core AI

My research desk on esports prediction markets. It records the Polymarket and Kalshi order books with its own recorders, keeps a reference clock that makes trades and books joinable, and tests every strategy idea against a fixed statistical bar before money moves. In September it went live on Polymarket with real orders.

2.63B order-book records, a 657 GB checksum-verified data lake, 1,092 real orders across 171 markets, and a replay engine that matched hash for hash on all 3,023 matches across two runs.
02
Live · CS2

SkinBetAI

A public CS2 prediction product with confidence labels, a visible results record and an explicit skip when there is no edge.

Around 3,000 monthly users. Built and run solo since 2024.
03
Client product · Market data

Wexxim

A CS2 market-intelligence platform and subscription business I designed and built for a Scandinavian creator.

Close to 1,000 members and about €35k in annual run-rate.
04
Power BI · On-chain trading analytics

Polymarket Esports Desk

The second edition of my trading report, on Polymarket's esports markets. Polymarket settles on-chain, so the report can show who the book is and who the customers are: wallet segments, cohorts, maker concentration, hold, exposure and liquidity. A written study of the month adds confidence intervals and tests the closing line.

$315M of taker stakes across 5.48M on-chain fills and 30,080 wallets in September 2026, built from my R2 data lake with dbt on DuckDB and 21 data checks on every build.
05
Interactive · Order flow

HLE vs T1, Replayed

An interactive replay of one League of Legends best of five on Polymarket, built from my own order-book recording and the trades on Polygon. It plays the price, every trade and the full book second by second, and ranks the wallets that moved first.

19,242 trades from 2,438 wallets and 1,036,276 order-book messages, replayed in the browser with React and canvas.
06
Power BI · Trading analytics

Esports Trading Desk

A Power BI report that reads Kalshi esports markets the way a sportsbook trading team reads its book: turnover, GGR, hold, exposure, closing line value and liquidity, by game and market type.

$666M of turnover across 22.5M fills and ~60,000 markets, 8 January to 2 September 2026. dbt on DuckDB underneath, with 16 data checks on every build.

Numbers I can defend.

Counted on 3 October 2026, not estimated. The research figures are broken down in the research desk write-up, and the platform ones in build evidence.

2.63BOrder-Book RecordsCaptured by my own recorders on Polymarket and Kalshi
1,092Real Exchange OrdersAcross 171 markets, each journalled and measured end to end
3,023Matches Replayed Byte-Identical344 strategy versions, the same hash on two independent runs
657 GBVerified Data Lake44 datasets, every file checked by sha256 or ETag
280+Pre-Registered ExperimentsEach hypothesis committed to git before the data
~3,000Monthly UsersOn SkinBetAI, a product I built, shipped and still run

Written up so you can check me.


The short version.

Mar 2026 to Present

Founder & Research Engineer · 21Core AI

Built a research desk for esports prediction markets: Polymarket and Kalshi order-book recorders that have captured 2.63B records, a 657 GB checksum-verified data lake, a reference clock measured from the book itself, 280+ pre-registered experiments and a live lane that placed 1,092 real orders across 171 markets. Built as one engineer directing AI coding agents, under repo rules that run as tests.

Dec 2024 to Present

Founder & Software Engineer · SkinBetAI

Built and run a public CS2 prediction product used by around 3,000 people a month, plus the data, research and publishing systems behind it.

Dec 2024 to Feb 2026

Affiliate & Performance Manager · SkinBet Agency

Ran a creator-marketing desk in iGaming, negotiated CPA and hybrid deals, managed partner budgets (€3k a month on a single partner) and built the internal tools used to check audiences and report real deposits.

Jul to Sep 2024

Software Engineering Intern · D31 IMO

Built a real-estate data extraction tool that replaced manual collection and is still used in the company's products.

Academic foundation.

2022 to Present

BSc Software Engineering

Universidade da Madeira, Portugal

Coursework in software architecture, databases, object-oriented programming, agile development, systems analysis, and requirements engineering. All products were built and iterated alongside ongoing studies, combining academic rigour with real-world deployment experience.


Have something worth building?

I'm open to quant research, trading, data and engineering roles. EU citizen, based in Madeira, happy to relocate, and available now. The easiest way to reach me is by email.