Digital Wager Wire highlights the most important events impacting the domestic and international sports betting and gaming industry each week throughout the year.
Kalshi Accepting Super Bowl Betting
The derivatives trading platform Kalshi made news last year by being one of a handful of companies offering contracts for the presidential election. It turns out its data was far more accurate than traditional polling that showed the race as a statistical dead heat, while Kalshi’s number of Donald Trump contracts revealed he was far ahead of rival Kamala Harris.
Now the Lower Manhattan-based company has announced it will be offering Super Bowl contracts and has filed with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to also “self-certify” contracts that could cover a range of sporting events and outcomes like the Super Bowl MVP.
Kalshi’s Super Bowl contracts are dynamic, much like stocks, in that their price will go up and down until the contracts are fulfilled, in this case when the Super Bowl is over. When betting at a traditional sportsbook, the odds or point spread are locked in and do not move.
Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour posted on X that big bettors are welcome:
$1,000,000
That’s reportedly the largest SB bet placed this year (by @stoolpresidente ?)
I’m surprised by how small this is (we had much bigger election trades)
If you’re looking to place a trade of this size, or larger, DM me.
Can trade in all 50 states with Kalshi
— Tarek Mansour (@mansourtarek_) January 28, 2025
It should also be noted that Donald Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., has joined Kalshi as a strategic advisor. He posted on X the following:
On Election night at Mar-a-Lago, while biased outlets called the race a coin toss, my family and close friends used the prediction market @Kalshi to know we won hours ahead of the fake news media.
I immediately knew I had to contribute to their mission. Today, I am proud to…
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) January 13, 2025
Casino Legislation Filed in Texas
The Lone Star State has not been friendly towards the prospects of commercial resorts/casinos, but that hasn’t stopped ambitious legislators from trying. The House passed a constitutional amendment in 2023 that would have allowed voters to legalize sports betting in Texas, but it failed to gain traction in the Senate.
Now, Senator Carol Alvarado has proposed Joint Resolution 16 that would bring as many as seven casinos to Texas and permit retail sports betting at those destinations. As in 2023, the House may be amenable, but the Senate has not changed enough for anyone to feel optimistic about the chances of this bill passing.
“I think it’s a job creator, and we’re not talking about just casinos,” Alvarado said. “But they would have to have a hotel component, a four- to five-star hotel. So, there’s jobs in the hospitality, shops, restaurants, and venues for conferences and performances. So, to me, it’s a real economic driver for Texas.”
But despite big money being donated to pro-gambling legislators’ campaigns by national and international gaming companies like the Las Vegas Sands, anti-casino advocate, and Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick believes successful casino legislation is a non-starter.
“You don’t pass major legislation in a red, conservative state with the Democrats controlling the show, particularly on a major bill like that,” Patrick said during a radio interview in November. “They’ve come in and spent millions and millions of dollars, and they just think that magically it happens. It doesn’t.”
