Kalshi Ads State ‘Sports Betting’ is Legal in California & Texas

Kalshi’s unrelenting expansion in sports trading markets continues unabated, and the company’s ads now proclaim that sports betting is legal in California and Texas.

Those, of course, are the two biggest states remaining without legal sports betting. Industry observer Dustin Gouker noted in his Event Horizon newsletter that the company’s recent ad buys on “Meta platforms like Facebook and Instagram show that Kalshi is specifically targeting large states that have not legalized sports betting via state law, saying that it’s now legal in those states.”

Is Kalshi Offering Sports Betting, or Just Advertising It?

That’s certainly a sound business practice: targeting the largest untapped markets in the US should be a boon for business. But what about the not-so-subtle implication?

Event Horizon added: “Kalshi also seems not to be concerned about advertising that it offers sports betting, saying that sports betting is legal in all 50 states in most current advertising.” 

That’s a bold proclamation from a company that consistently insists it doesn’t offer sports betting in court. In an extreme case of cognitive dissonance, it doesn’t appear to matter what the company says, commercially speaking. Kalshi’s momentum grows by the day.

This week, Kalshi self-certified new player prop markets for the NFL after recording eye-popping trading volume during the opening week of the season.

Kalshi is regulated at the federal level by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and the company shows no signs of slowing down in all US states, including those without legal sports betting.

Kalshi’s Pricing Improves Relative to DraftKings in NFL Week 3

Another industry newsletter, The Bear Cave, examined all 14 Kalshi moneyline markets for Sunday’s NFL games and found that “Kalshi offered better odds” in eight of 14 games as of Tuesday night.

For Chiefs vs. Giants, The Bear Cave noted that “DraftKings will pay $157.50 for a $50 bet on the underdog Giants, while the Kalshi market offers $170, after fees, for the same bet.”

The findings come after analysts at Citizens JMP Securities determined that Kalshi’s pricing was consistently more expensive than that of major operators, such as DraftKings, during the NFL’s opening week.

Moving forward, The Bear Cave “expects Kalshi’s value proposition to improve over time because its transaction fees may come down as the platform matures.” Additionally, per the newsletter, Kalshi is exploring sub-penny pricing, which will “allow for even smaller bid-ask spreads.”