Prediction market Kalshi scores big with $27-billion FIFA World Cup windfall
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- Kalshi recorded US$27-billion in trading volume and attracted roughly three million users during the 2026 FIFA World Cup, doubling its pre-tournament projections of $13-billion in volume and 1.5 million users.
- The 2026 FIFA World Cup ran an expanded 48-team format, opening at Estadio Azteca in Mexico and concluding in New Jersey where Spain defeated defending champions Argentina.
- Kalshi announced earlier this month that it will begin taking bets on clinical-trial outcomes and FDA regulatory reviews, making drug-development odds public for the first time.
- Gabriel Perez, U.S. President Donald Trump's longtime teleprompter operator, is under federal investigation for potential insider trading on Kalshi, with the company flagging the suspicious activity to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
- Kalshi is fighting litigation from several states over gaming-law violations, with Massachusetts seeking the first injunction and Washington securing a court order this week to block the platform's event contracts.
- Critics characterize platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket as illegal gambling operations vulnerable to insider trading, even as the sector has surged in popularity since the 2024 U.S. Presidential election.
Why it matters: Kalshi's $27-billion World Cup volume—double its forecast and built on roughly three million users—gives the startup financial momentum to expand into clinical-trial and FDA-review event contracts, but it is doing so while courts in Washington and Massachusetts move to block its sports-betting operations and a CFTC insider-trading probe involving a Trump operative remains active.
