Kalshi said it was going to do it and now it’s gone ahead and done it.
The federally regulated prediction market rolled out several event contracts on Thursday – as it said it would on Wednesday in a regulatory filing – that involve the Super Bowl, Stanley Cup, and the winner of the NCAA’s men’s basketball tournament, among other things.
For example, the contracts will allow traders to buy and sell contracts regarding the outcome of this weekend’s NFL conference championships.
As of around 9:30 a.m. ET on Thursday, a Kalshi user could buy a "yes" contract for the Kansas City Chiefs to win the AFC for 55 cents. If the Chiefs beat the Buffalo Bills on Sunday, the holders of those contracts will get paid out a dollar for each of those contracts, a profit of 45 cents.
As reported yesterday, Kalshi was preparing to and now has launched a bunch of event contracts tied to pro and college sports championships. All of them tucked under a "sports" section on the prediction market's website.
— Geoff Zochodne (@GeoffZochodne) January 23, 2025
More background here:https://t.co/A5skhbE9LX@Covers pic.twitter.com/qh250S9A1o
Kalshi users are already dabbling in the new sports event contracts. There was more than $140,000 in trading in Kalshi's March Madness-related market and more than $40,000 in its Stanley Cup-related market as of Thursday morning.
The new event contracts are in addition to sports-related ones Kalshi had previously offered, such as those for the next head coaches of NFL teams.
They are also available in all 50 states (unlike futures at state-regulated online sportsbooks) and are in addition to the variety of other event contracts Kalshi has available, such as those tied to politics, economics, and entertainment.
Kalshi is still in court fighting for the right to offer de facto wagering on U.S. election odds but the company has so far prevailed, allowing it to facilitate millions of dollars in bets on last November’s presidential contest. The prediction market has rolled out more and more markets since then, and added President Donald Trump’s son as an advisor.
The times they are becoming quite different
What’s more, the regulatory environment looks to be changing in a very favorable way for Kalshi and other prediction markets.
The company’s regulator, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, has a new acting chairman, Republican Commissioner Caroline Pham, who announced additional leadership changes on Wednesday. Those departures include that of the CFTC’s general counsel, Rob Schwartz, who recently argued against Kalshi’s election contracts before a panel of federal appeals judges.
The leadership changes and the more approving view of Trumpworld toward prediction markets suggest companies like Kalshi could be free to launch even more event contracts like the sports-related ones.
Notably, the CFTC said it would review Crypto.com’s sports event contracts in the final days of the Biden administration and under the watch of its former chairman. However, Crypto declined to pause trading in those contracts, and now Kalshi has joined the action as well.
