Kalshi Sports Review
Legal sports trading in most states
Event trading for niche markets
Excellent mobile app
$10 Bonus
Covers BetSmart Rating:
Bonuses and promotions
Banking and payout speed
Key features
Security and trust
Customer support
User experience
Betting odds
Payout speed
Within 24 hours
Deposits & withdrawals
Why Kalshi Sports?
Legal sports trading in most states
Event trading for niche markets
Excellent mobile app
Payout speed
Within 24 hours
Covers BetSmart Rating:
Covers BetSmart Rating:
Deposits & withdrawals
Pros and cons
So long as you're in an eligible state, you can use the Kalshi promo code 'COVERS' to score one of the simplest new-user sportsbook promos of 2025 — a $10 bonus when you trade $100 in contracts.
Buying and selling contracts at Kalshi Sports
There are two ways to purchase and sell Kalshi contracts:
- Quick Order — A request to buy a certain number of contracts at the best available price immediately. This order type may span multiple prices if there are not enough contracts remaining at the lowest possible price. You also sell Quick Order contracts at the best available price, making it the fastest and simplest way to trade on Kalshi Sports today.
- Limit Order — A request to buy contracts at a specific price or better, guaranteeing a locked-in price when trading in the future. The process is the same when selling Limit Order contracts.
Deposit options
While Kalshi Sports offers a decent number of the most popular deposit and withdrawal options, such as Visa and Mastercard, they come with a $2 fee per transaction. There are no fees when paying with cryptocurrency, but you can only use USDC, as popular methods like Bitcoin (BTC), Litecoin (LTC), and Dogecoin (DOGE) are not available.
I was disappointed that I couldn't use PayPal or several common e-wallets to fund my account. Given that the Kalshi betting platform only began offering sports trading recently, I'll cut it a break, hoping these additional payment methods get added in the near future.
| Deposit Method | Fee | Process Time | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
Free | 1-4 Banking Days | $10 |
|
|
Free | instant | $1 |
|
|
$2 | instant | $1 |
|
|
$2 | instant | $1 |
|
|
Free | 1-2 Banking Days | $1,000 |
Withdrawal options
I suggest making your withdrawals with your debit card or USDC since it can take up to four business days if you use bank transfers to receive your payment.
| Withdrawal Method | Fee | Process Time | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
Free | 1-4 Banking days | $10 |
|
|
Free | instant | $10 |
|
|
$2 | Within 24 hours | $10 |
Available in most states, Kalshi holds one of the most unique positions in the legal U.S. landscape in 2025, acting as a stock exchange for the top sports, political, cultural, entertainment, and other marquee events. Besides the Kalshi bonus code welcome bonus, I've highlighted several other unique reasons why Kalshi Sports is one of the best social sportsbooks and is well worth checking out.
Event trading
Kalshi is a prediction trading platform, meaning you won't find the typical betting odds that you do when using traditional sportsbooks. Instead, there is a simple 'Yes' or 'No' proposition with each available market, and you buy the side of the wager you believe will happen. Like the financial exchange, you can also study the market or utilize Kalshi's various prediction tools to sell your position on a contract if you believe the market is fluctuating unfavorably.
Unique markets
Although you have a limited number of sports markets to wager on — basketball, football, tennis, hockey, and soccer — there are countless markets that you are not likely to find anywhere else in 2025. 'Who will be Spotify's top artist this year? Taylor Swift or The Weeknd', 'Will it rain in NYC today?', a 'Will India ban X this year?', and various political events are a few of the most eye-catching Kalshi markets that I've come across since using the online betting site.
Kalshi is self-certifying markets that use the formula "Will <team> win <event>?" contract, which will allow them to offer the equivalent of online betting. New event contracts are constantly being added, including golf, UFC, esports, Oscars betting, politics, crypto predictions, and more.
NBA moneyline betting
For the first time, Kalshi is offering single-game NBA moneyline betting for the NBA playoffs.
Buy and sell bets
I love how Kalshi acts similarly to the stock markets, allowing you to trade contracts for current and future events directly with Kalshi users. I love how you can track the performance of your transaction immediately, making it easy to see see if your decision was correct over time.
Predictive insights
You can see the entire forecasted price history for every available contract that Kalshi offers, providing easy access to relevant market trends based. You can also select to see a contract's history for the past hour, day, week, or month if you're seeking more granular data on public sentiment. Additionally, you can use Kalshi's API technology to create AI-driven algorithms to help further inform your decisions when trading a variety of markets.
Kalshi allows you to trade on the go with its highly intuitive sports betting app, which is available for free for both iOS and Android devices. Although you can access Kalshi via your phone's web browser, it does not compare with the operator's dedicated mobile app, which offers all of the same great features — betting markets, forecasted trends, customer support, FAQs, etc. — that you can find on its desktop version, making our list for the best sports betting apps Georgia offers today.
Kalshi app design
After using the Kalshi Sports mobile app for a while, I came away quite impressed with how easily you can navigate throughout the platform. The user-friendly design and clean interface allows you to switch between sports markets, weather events, election markets, and more seamlessly.
Kalshi app improvements
I love how Kalshi is always trying to enhance the mobile trading experience for its users. At the time of writing, the Kalshi Sports app has already undergone a staggering 18 updates to improve its mobile betting site in 2025. I've highlighted Kalshi's most notable recent updates below:
Jan. 27, 2025: Enhanced search functionality throughout the app.
Jan. 15, 2025: Improved parlay capabilities within various betting markets.
Jan. 11, 2025: Enhanced the live experience — including real-time markets — and improved the login process, allowing for more seamless access to your mobile account.
Jan. 8, 2025: Improved withdrawal functionality and in-app notifications.
Kalshi Sports iOS rating
Apple users think highly of the Kalshi mobile app, giving it a 4.6/5 from over 5,900 user reviews.
Kalshi Sports Android rating
Meanwhile, Android users feel similarly, awarding the Kalshi mobile betting site a 4/5 rating.
Kalshi iOS app
Kalshi does not require the same licensing and regulations that traditional sports betting sites or even sweepstake casinos do. Kalshi is a Designated Contract Market (DCM) and is regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), meaning it adheres to the trading standards instilled by U.S. federal law.
Kalshi utilizes SSL encryption throughout its platform to secure your personal and financial information while playing. Kalshi has recently achieved SOC 2 Type II compliance, which is an external review of an operator's effectiveness in terms of their security for customer data.
I came away decently impressed after testing out Kalshi's available customer support channels. Although having four ways to get in touch is nice, I prefer online sites that offer 24/7 assistance, which Kalshi does not provide in 2025. Until then, I recommend using Kalshi's dedicated Discord channel or extensive FAQ section for answers to any ill-timed issues.
It's worth noting that you must make a real-money deposit before you can use Kalshi's live chat function.
- Live chat available 8:00 a.m. - 3 p.m. ET
- Email: support@kalshi.com
- Phone: 332-205-9910
- Support languages: English
- X (Twitter): @Kalshi
It's clear that the Kalshi betting site is still in its infancy stage, but I would suggest that all U.S. users become early adopters of what is sure to be one of the industry's most popular betting platforms in the near future.
While awaiting the addition of more sports markets, you can discover and place trades on options that, put simply, you cannot find anywhere else in 2025. I also love how unique Kalshi is in the current legal landscape, as the ability to buy and sell contracts with other users in any state adds a fun element that you'd expect to only find with stock markets, not regulated online sportsbooks.
Room for Improvement
Since Kalshi just opened its digital doors recently, I will cut the operator a bit of slack for not having all of the bells and whistles I've come to expect with the top legal online sportsbooks in 2025. For example, having offers beyond the Kalshi sign up bonus. In saying that, I believe there are three areas Kalshi Sports needs to improve to be viewed as a legitimate sports betting option in the future:
- More sports markets: You currently can only trade on five sports at Kalshi, which is just unacceptable since you can commonly find upwards of 20 sporting events at almost every online sportsbook in 2025. While I appreciate that it already allows you to trade on the NFL and NBA, I need to see Kalshi add more popular leagues, such as the MLB, and markets for niche events before it becomes a part of my regular rotation.
- Bonuses and promotions: Besides the Kalshi promo code welcome offer, the operator does not offer any kind of bonuses at this time. Kalshi will have to change this quickly, allowing new and regular users to unlock a variety of promotions by using a Kalshi bonus code to keep up in this competitive industry.
- 24/7 customer support: Most of the top online sportsbooks offer around-the-clock customer service. Until Kalshi Sports does the same, it'll be hard to put it at the same level as these established operators.
Kalshi in the news
March 5, 2025: Nevada send a cease-and-desist to Kalshi, becoming the first state to officially take action against the prediction market platform.
Feb. 27, 2025: The Indian Gaming Association urges the CFTC to prohibit sports prediction outcome markets, such as Kalshi.
Feb. 13, 2025: President Donald Trump picks former Kalshi board member Brian Quintenz as the head of the federal commodities regulator.
Feb. 12, 2025: Webull partners with Kalshi to offer event-contract trading like other online brokerages.
Feb. 8, 2025: Ahead of the Super Bowl, a CFTC filing reveals that Kalshi is self-certifying markets allowing bets on game winners, effectively mirroring moneyline betting.
Feb. 4, 2025: Robinhood pulls its Super Bowl contracts on Kalshi after one day after the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's legality concerns.
Feb. 3, 2025: Robinhood will offer contracts for Super Bowl LIX through a partnership with Kalshi.
Jan. 28, 2025: Kalshi is already attracting big bucks for Super Bowl LIX, as the prediction betting sites as already reportingly taken in $1.3 million in wagers for this year's Big Game.
Jan. 22, 2025: Kalshi will launch sports betting-like event contracts in the near future, allowing bettors to wager on predictive markets ahead of the Super Bowl.
Jan. 13, 2025: Donald Trump Jr. will work as an advisor to Kalshi following the rise in popularity of prediction betting in the U.S.
Nov. 6, 2024: Kalshi and Polymarket rise to the top of the App Store charts amidst the U.S. Election betting craze.
Oct. 29, 2024: Kalshi has taken in almost $200 million in U.S. Election trading, says CEO Tarek Mansour.
Oct. 23, 2024: Kalshi experiences a recent demand explosion after launching U.S. Election betting markets, reporting to Covers that the operator has seen over $70 million in election contracts in the past three weeks.
Oct. 21, 2024: The U.S. Election betting 'whales' are starting to surface after Kalshi reports one bettor wagered $500K on Kamala Harris to win the U.S. presidential election.
Oct. 2, 2024: Kalshi resumes U.S. Election betting following the Appeals Court ruling.
Sept. 20, 2024: Kalshi argues that U.S. Election betting can combat misinformation amidst its battle with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Sept. 17, 2024: A federal regulator argues that the 'explosion' of U.S. Election betting done on Kalshi and other sites will harm the public's interest in the upcoming election.
Sept. 13, 2024: Thanks to grey-area predictive sites like Kalshi, U.S. Election betting is simultaneously blowing up and breaking down ahead of the 2024 Federal Election.
Sept. 12, 2024: Kalshi's election betting is halted after a U.S. Court of Appeals temporarily freezes all election betting.
Sept. 9, 2024: Kalshi gets the OK to offer U.S. Election betting markets after a federal judge overturned a 2023 CFTC decision.
Kalshi Sports review FAQs
Kalshi is a legitimate prediction trading platform that acts similarly to the stock exchange — you buy and sell contracts on various events, such as sports, politics, entertainment awards, etc., with other Kalshi users at a given price.
The Kalshi promo code is COVERS.
The minimum deposit for trading at Kalshi Sports is $1.
Kalshi uses a variable transaction fee based on the expected earnings of a contract, with the formula Fee = 0.07 × Number of Contracts × Contract Price × (1 – Contract Price). For example, if you purchase 100 contracts priced at $0.50 each, the fee would be: Fee = 0.07 × 100 × $0.50 × (1 – $0.50) = $1.75.
Yes, you can use the Kalshi referral code to sign up and trade sports, politics, entertainment, and various other markets on Kalshi's iOS and Android app.
Kalshi does not use odds in the traditional sense, even if the prices are similar to moneyline bets. Instead, the cost to buy a contract is dictated by the supply and demand of the market.
No. Kalshi does not offer traditional stock options for sports. Instead, you can buy contracts for certain sports markets that you can hold or trade with other bettors.
Yes. You can find various political markets at Kalshi, including who will be the Democratic and Republican nominee in 2028, various state Senate races, and numerous other bet types.
Yes, you can use both Visa and Mastercard to fund your Kalshi account.
Recent News
Pages related to this topic
