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Despite its ongoing battles with multiple state regulators nationwide, Kalshi continues to make significant moves and has ventured into a space typically reserved for state-regulated sportsbooks by offering point spreads, totals, and player props.
With the new football season only weeks away, Kalshi announced the major expansion yesterday (Aug 18). The federally regulated prediction market aims to meet the rising demand for legalized sports trading while also tackling the multibillion-dollar illegal betting market.
Kalshi plans to introduce contracts that allow users to bet on various aspects of football games, including point spreads and touchdown scoring props. Regulatory filings on the operator’s website revealed details of these new contracts, such as whether a team will win by a certain number of points or if a player will score at any time during the game.
First of its Kind
This is the first time federally regulated platforms like Kalshi, Crypto.com, and Robinhood will offer sports-related products alongside traditional sportsbooks.
While Kalshi has already provided moneyline betting, the addition of contracts on touchdowns and overall scores taps into a more popular aspect of football betting.
These new contracts went live after the close of business yesterday, though the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) had the power to intervene. The CFTC also has one business day to either block the products for public interest concerns or initiate a 90-day review process.
“Bringing these markets under CFTC oversight gives consumers the same level of protections as Wall Street traders and institutions”, Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour said in a press release. “Kalshi is bringing more liquidity, efficiency, and price competition to markets on the $400 billion sports industry, and our traction so far is testament to that.
Sports Contracts Proving Vital to Kalshi
Kalshi and similar platforms have made major strides with their sports event contracts, although their trading volumes still fall short compared to the extensive betting handled by state-regulated sportsbooks.
On Monday, Kalshi reported that it had reached over $6 billion in total trading volume since its inception, with around $2 billion linked specifically to the sports contracts introduced in the last seven months.
In contrast, online sports betting sites in New York processed more than $2 billion in bets during both April and May this year, highlighting the difference in scale. Kalshi emphasized the economic significance of the sports industry, suggesting that it could influence decisions made by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and federal judges.
The prediction market pointed out that factors like margins of victory affect television ratings, which in turn impact the projected $30 billion for sports television and streaming rights across the major leagues.
Source: Covers
