Kalshi Volume Report: Tennis, Baseball, And Hot Dog Eating Dominate

The hot dog eating contest is a very serious financial market and hedging opportunity. Written in sarcasm font.

Sports betting is back to accounting for more than 70% of all trading volume at the prediction market Kalshi, led by betting on tennis, baseball and hot dog eating.

Eight of the top ten markets for the week ending July 6 were sports markets, and 12 of the top 20. Trading volume is still down from when NBA and NHL betting were available. Here’s a look at the top 20 markets from June 30-July 6.

Some notes on the data:

• The top 20 markets accounted for more than 87% of all trading at Kalshi. That means more than a thousand other markets available on the platform accounted for a relatively small portion of all trading.

• Betting on Wimbledon was the most popular group of markets at Kalshi for the week, accounting for more than a third of all trading. You could bet on the winner of the tournament (KXWMENSINGLES, KXWWOMENSINGLES) and individual matches (KXATPMATCH, KXWTAMATCH).

  • The sheer number of matches available early in the tournament helps generate a lot of trading interest.

  • These markets are also available at Robinhood via Kalshi.

• Single-game Major League Baseball betting (KXMLBGAME) was popular as well, accounting for more than 16% of all trading.

• The Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest was about 10% of all volume across betting on the men’s winner (KXNATHANSHD) and how many hot dogs the winner would eat (KXNATHANDOGS). There were no markets on the women’s contest.

• Other sports markets in the top 20 include betting on

  • The PGA Tour’s John Deere Classic (KXPGATOUR)

  • FIFA Club World Cup matches (KXCLUBWCGAME)

  • The Grant Park 165 in NASCAR (KXNASCARRACE)

  • WNBA games (KXWNBAGAME)

  • MLS matches (KXMLSGAME)

Interestingly, Kalshi didn’t offer betting on the Gold Cup championship match in soccer between the US and Mexico.

A rundown of other markets appearing in the top 20:

• Bitcoin price and price range today at x time (KXBTCD, KXBTC)

• What will the Federal Reserve do with interest rates? (KXFEDDECISION)

• Who will win the mayoral race in New York? (KXMAYORNYCPARTY)

• S&P price today at x time (KXINXU)

• When will a budget reconciliation bill become law? (KXRECNCBILL)

• Democratic nominee for president in 2028 (KXPRESNOMD)

• Jurassic World Rebirth Rotten Tomatoes Score (KXRTJURASSICWORLDREBIRTH)