Kalshi Receives $800M in Trades on March Madness in First Week

March Madness is bringing in a record betting handle from legal and regulated operators, the American Gaming Association recently said, but prediction markets are also taking a huge chunk of the pie. 

Kalshi Picks Up Steam During College Season 

According to reports by Bloomberg, Kalshi, arguably the leader in the space, managed to bring in $800 million in traded volume in the first weekend of the tournament alone, well ahead of the $208 million traded on the event on Kalshi during the event’s two rounds last year.

The success of the prediction platform is several-fold. First, Kalshi has been able to withstand legal challenges, despite a setback dealt to the company in Nevada only recently, which will depress some of its results, but not too seriously, given the circumstances.

Secondly, Kalshi has been able to build its profile nationally and leverage its presence across the nation, although legal pushback persists on local and federal levels. 

Thirdly, Kalshi has been skilled at monetizing on its marketing efforts. Ahead of March Madness, Kalshi introduced its Billion Dollar Bracket, offering a top prize of $1 billion to anyone who guesses the outcomes of all 63 games in the event – a feat that no one has pulled off, at least not publicly.

Despite Kalshi riding the wave of excitement associated with college-level athletic competitions, not everyone in the college community is happy with that. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has objected to Kalshi (and DraftKings and FanDuel, as a matter of fact) use of trademarked assets such as March Madness. 

NCAA Criticizes Prediction Markets, Betting Companies 

The NCAA went further, with president Charlie Baker sending a letter to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and asking for the regulator to intervene and suspend sporting event contracts tied to college-level sports. 

“Sport integrity is paramount for the NCAA, and despite the recent CFTC memo, we remain deeply concerned by unprotected prediction markets that pose a threat to competition integrity and student-athlete safety,” a spokesperson for the NCAA said, with the CFTC clearly not honoring the letter in time.

In the meantime, Kalshi continues to reap the benefits of providing an intuitive product that capitalizes on the sports betting world and takes the best of it, but stops short of calling itself a gambling platform.