Kalshi Says It's 'Kind Of Addicting' In Instagram Post
Roundup: Limitless raises $10 million; Underdog plans to lay off risk with prediction markets; you can trade on the Louvre heist.
An Instagram post by Kalshi calls the prediction market “kind of addicting.”
The 50-second video talks about the founders of Kalshi and how the company opened up prediction markets to the masses.
Near the end of the post, the narrator says Kalshi is “Simple, regulated, and kind of addicting.” Here’s the full thing (you have to be logged into Instagram to view it):
The language choice was not lost on users; here are a few comments from the post:
“Addictive, the goal stated”
“‘kind of addicting’ cool! im sold!”
‘….and kind of addicting’ just had to throw that in there did you?”
“Pretty sure ‘kinda addictive’ is the problem.”
“Naah I would stick to Draftkings”
“You meant to say gamble not trade 🤣”
“Yeah that’s what people need, a casino on their phone that encourages more addiction”
“Needs regulation. 21+.”
Kalshi has tried to avoid comparisons to gambling of late; describing the platform as “addicting” is certainly an interesting choice. You could even look at it as refreshingly honest, I suppose.
Earlier this year, the prediction market routinely used “betting” terminology but has since moved away from that kind of marketing. Kalshi has been the subject of a recent class-action lawsuit in New York and a variety of other loss recovery lawsuits based on the idea that it offers a gambling product.
While Kalshi did roll out some tools related to “responsible risk management” earlier this year, they are buried in the UI and difficult to discover on the app and the website.
For the record, I do have the raw video, if the post is deleted.
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Prediction markets news roundup
Underdog Sports Preparing To Use Kalshi, Prediction Markets For Its Own Risk Management (InGame): “Underdog Sports plans to turn to well-capitalized favorites in the U.S. predictions market space to manage risk on its own platform in certain cases where exposure on player props or other sports events creates outsized liability, InGame has learned.”
“It’s a real tool for us that didn’t exist before, where we can hedge against volatility, particularly during major events that are drawing huge amounts of sports fan interest,” an Underdog spokesperson explained. “We are going to be offloading risk where appropriate across our sports betting and fantasy offerings by utilizing prediction markets like Kalshi, Crypto.com and others.”
My take: This is an interesting development, and honestly one of the best use cases for prediction markets about sports! It’s not clear who else might use this from the fantasy pick’em realm, but it’s certainly feasible others could follow in Underdog’s footsteps. It’s not as clear if state-regulated sportsbooks are going to be able to follow Underdog’s lead, as it likely brings up some of the same regulatory concerns for them as actually operating a prediction market platform. We’ll see!
Limitless Prediction Market Closes $10M Seed Round Ahead of LMTS Token Launch (Chainwire): “Limitless Exchange, the fastest-growing prediction market platform, has announced the close of a $10M seed round, led by 1confirmation with participation from Collider, F-Prime, DCG, Coinbase Ventures, Node Capital, and Arrington Capital. The raise follows Limitless’ strong momentum, as the platform recently surpassed $500M in total trading volume, cementing its position as the largest prediction market on Base. Flyer One Ventures and SID Venture Partners previously joined Limitless’ strategic round, further strengthening the platform’s investor base.”
“Limitless’ growth trajectory underscores the strength of its market model and accessibility: trading volume grew 25x between August and September, and by mid-October the platform had already processed $100M+ in notional trading volume — surpassing September’s totals in just half the time.”
“What’s most exciting is our investors and early users already recognize how Limitless is the simplest way in the world to get access to high leverage trading. Prediction markets are going mainstream and transforming into a new multi-trillion dollar derivatives category. The future is Limitless,” said CJ Hetherington, CEO at Limitless Labs.
Prediction markets are turning the Louvre heist into a game (Fast Company): “In a stunt that’s surely destined for Netflix adaptation, this weekend a group of thieves broke into the Louvre in broad daylight and stole nine pieces of priceless jewelry in less than seven minutes. Prediction markets are already betting on whether the robbers will be caught. … Now, as French police desperately search for the whereabouts of the missing jewelry, armchair experts on these sites are looking to turn their own profits by intensely speculating on whether the thieves are destined for justice. Most betters think it’s not a question of if the perpetrators get caught, but when—and they’re casting votes for the most likely date of their arrests.”
Prediction Markets Hit All-Time High of $2 Billion in Weekly Volume (Decrypt): “Weekly prediction market volume set a new high-water mark above $2 billion as Polymarket retakes its lead over competitor Kalshi, according to Dune Analytics data. Both Polymarket and Kalshi have experienced massive increases in user activity and trading volume over the last several months, as prediction markets as a whole gain broader mainstream awareness and adoption. Kalshi, as the first federally regulated prediction market platform in the U.S., saw a leap in user activity in August—not coincidentally at the start of the new NFL season—and overtook Polymarket in trading volume for the first time. Polymarket, now poised to reenter the U.S. market, began beta testing its U.S. app just over a week ago and has retaken pole position in the lead-up to upcoming November elections.”
Wall Street Bets: Third-quarter earnings, prediction markets, U.S. gaming trends (CDC Gaming): “Macquarie’s Chad Beynon looked at how prediction markets are intriguing buyers: ‘Online stocks lower creating strong buying opportunities, particularly if you believe sportsbooks can hit structural hold targets during the seasonally high NFL season,’ Beynon wrote on October 17. ‘Online stocks are -6% in the last month (vs +0% Standard & Poor 500), attributable mostly to prediction market headlines and softer hold rates in September from NFL games. However, following several discussions with various online industry professionals at G2E, we reiterate our view that the recent pullback is overdone and should be viewed as a buying opportunity, particularly for DraftKings (-18%) and Flutter (-10%), which have led the sell-off.’”
Heavy Activity Led To Kalshi Outage During College Football Saturday (InGame): “‘Extreme demand’ caused Kalshi’s website and app to go offline Saturday afternoon, a spokesperson told InGame. Kalshi was hit by an outage right as the early slate of college football games reached their conclusion and mid-afternoon (Eastern time zone) games kicked off, typically one of the busiest points of the day. … Trading via Kalshi’s API and Robinhood appeared to stay unaffected.”
“Yesterday, Kalshi’s direct platform experienced data loading lag due to extreme demand,” the Kalshi spokesperson said in a statement Sunday. “The back-end exchange remained online, broker platforms were unaffected, and user funds were not at risk. These front-end issues have since been resolved.”
“Kalshi’s trade data shows a significant slowdown in activity during the outage period, but it was far from a stoppage. Volume fell to around $8 million of contracts traded in the typically busy hour from 3:30 p.m. until 4:30 p.m. ET. During the same period on the previous Saturday, more than $20 million worth of contracts were traded.”
Polymarket has a deal with crypto streamer ThreadGuy (Twitter):
The flaunt on Kalshi. To be that brazen Dustin....