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Prediction markets platform Kalshi, coming off a victory in its legal battle with California tribes over whether its offerings can be considered California sports betting, has forged partnerships with two national media outlets, further raising its profile.
Cable network CNBC entered into a multi-year partnership in which Kalshi’s real-time prediction data will be featured on its channel, site, and app next year, according to a Business Insider report. That news dovetails with an announcement earlier this week that Kalshi had created a similar agreement with CNN.
The CNBC partnership could be potentially impactful for those in the financial sector, Business Insider noted.
CNBC viewers will be able to see what Kalshi users believe are the probabilities of different market and economic outcomes, such as whether the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates at its next meeting, based on the way those users are trading contracts. The financial news outlet will also feature a Kalshi-branded ticker during select TV segments on shows such as “Squawk Box” and “Fast Money.”
Kalshi says it provides real-time data for journalists
According to the article, Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour said the arrangement with CNBC is “the next evolution: moving from data about what’s happening now, to real-time forecasts about what’s happening next.”
In its release on the CNN partnership Tuesday, Kalshi touted itself as “the definitive source for staying informed about the future and is used by reporters, politicians, pundits, Wall Street, and Main Street. It recently called the NYC Mayoral election eight minutes after polls closed, hours before the media.”
Kalshi maintains that it will complement news reporting.
“It’s because of this accuracy that Kalshi’s data will serve as a powerful complement to CNN’s reporting. Journalists can more easily surface credible information to their audiences about the real-time probabilities of future cultural and political events.”
Kalshi’s latest victory
The partnerships come several weeks after a milestone moment in the case involving the Blue Lake Rancheria, Chicken Ranch Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians, and Picayune Rancheria of the Chukchansi Indians tribes. Those tribes came together in September to file a lawsuit against Kalshi, invoking the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) and the state’s Tribal-State Gaming Compacts in seeking an injunction to keep Kalshi from operating in the Golden State.
As Legal Sports Report detailed in its Nov. 11 article, the United States District Court Northern District of California issued an order denying California tribes’ motion to prohibit the platform from operating on tribal lands. The story noted, in part:
“The tribes failed to meet their burden of demonstrating likelihood of success that Kalshi’s offering of sports-related event contracts constituting Class III gaming in violation of IGRA, because the Picayune Rancheria’s Tribal-State compact and Blue Lake’s and Chicken Ranch’s secretarial procedures governing tribal gaming are ‘silent about what companies like [Kalshi] can do on the Internet, and only outlines what the tribe is ‘authorized and permitted to operate.’
“The court additionally held that the tribes were unlikely to succeed on the merits of its IGRA claim because the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, and not IGRA, applies to Kalshi’s operations.”
The judge held that Kalshi is a registered entity under the Commodity Exchange Act, and its transactions take place on Kalshi’s site, meaning its activities don’t qualify as bets or wagers under the UIGEA, “and therefore do not constitute ‘unlawful internet gambling’ even if the contracts are received, placed, or transmitted from persons on Indian lands where Internet gambling is illegal.”
As this was only a ruling on a preliminary injunction, the suit is still in play.
