Kalshi Says It Took in $1.2B in Trades on the Super Bowl

At a time when the American Gaming Association optimistically projected around $1.76 billion in sports bets placed on the Super Bowl, Kalshi – a major prediction market platform – has completely exceeded expectations, once again reaffirming its position in the mainstream carried by sports fans. 

The platform said that it registered a 2,700% increase in trading activity from the year before, with Kalshi taking action all around – not just on who would win the Big Game, but also gamifying virtually every aspect of the event. The latest figure is an update on previous reporting that pegged the action at around $900 million.

Kalshi’s Super Bowl Success Could Be Definitive Proof for Platform Long-Term Prospects

Event contracts allowed the company to set trades on which song Bad Bunny would open with, which drew in $113 million in action, along with another $47 million on who would end up accompanying the performer on stage.

Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour has called the Super Bowl an “incredible weekend.” 

“Kalshi was the biggest brand of the Super Bowl this year, without running a Super Bowl ad, and the way we achieved that is the product,” Mansour said in a TV interview. 

Kalshi experienced an unprecedented surge in downloads on the App Store, causing temporary delays and connectivity issues, which were smoothed out as the weekend progressed and the Big Game got underway. 

The Super Bowl was important for another reason as well – it exemplified sports fans’ shifting attitudes, and the platform arguably goes beyond any single definition. 

While sportsbooks have carped about Kalshi skirting gambling rules, some have embraced the market model – DraftKings, Fanatics, and FanDuel are also operating their own prediction platforms, hoping to do what Kalshi does and offer event contracts on every aspect of a sports event, not just the athletes’ performance.

The recent results give a very strong argument that Kalsh is here to stay, although the company is coming under scrutiny and is being litigated across the United States. 

Once again, in his recent TV interview, Mansour maintained that his company was already regulated by the CFTC and did not breach any local rules. Kalshi has similarly been protective against claims that its products are in any way harmful.

Kalshi Largely Optimistic about the Future, Addresses Thorny Issues

“As a regulated financial market by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, we have the same rules as the Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange, and we have the same mechanism of enforcement,” he added. 

Kalshi has been proactive in addressing regulatory concerns, arguing that it would help strengthen consumer protection safeguards and has now established the Surveillance Advisory Committee, which will crack down on corrupt trades, i.e., market action that is spurred by insider trading. 

Most significantly, however, Kalshi appears to be generating market-related action that traditional sports betting companies are failing to – particularly through the use of secondary culture-related propositions, but also through markets on game performance.