A professional athlete is now a partial owner of prediction market platform Kalshi, and it’s a big one.
Key Takeaways
- NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo said on X that “it was time to make some (opinions) of my own.”
- Kalshi had a trade market up on Giannis earlier this week and was offering a spread on his team’s Friday night game.
- The NBA asked for the regulation of prediction markets that offer contracts on games in May 2025.
In an unprecedented move, NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo announced Friday on the social media site X that he’s a shareholder of a trading exchange that offers sports event contracts.
“The internet is full of opinions,” the Milwaukee Bucks star wrote. “I decided it was time to make some of my own. Today, I’m joining Kalshi as a shareholder.
“We all on Kalshi now.”
We all on @Kalshi now pic.twitter.com/cCNGxfLWO8
— Giannis Antetokounmpo (@Giannis_An34) February 6, 2026
The nine-time All-Star and 2021 NBA champion will partner with Kalshi at live events and in marketing.
As an NBA player, he's forbidden from trading on NBA markets, Kalshi announced, citing its insider trading policy.
“Giannis is a legend,” said Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour said in a statement. “He’s exactly the type of long-term partner we want to align our growing brand with, and we couldn’t be happier he’s on board.”
Giannis’ team was listed as a 1.5-point underdog on Kalshi against Indiana in a game that had received more than $90,000 in trading volume on the same day of the announcement. Kalshi even has a page involving Giannis, with contracts on nine active markets.
Earlier this week, Kalshi had a market posted on whether The Greek Freak would be traded before the NBA’s deadline and to which team. He ultimately remained with the Bucks.
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Gray area
According to the NBA’s 2023 Collective Bargaining Agreement, players can have passive investments under 1% in sports betting companies, but they are not allowed to own, operate, or manage sportsbooks. Kalshi falls into a unique category.
Kalshi is federally regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), allowing it to offer outcome contracts on sports in all 50 states. However, the trading exchange has run into several legal roadblocks in states with legal, regulated sports betting. Massachusetts recently won a court decision to keep Kalshi from operating there, but a temporary restraining order has yet to be implemented.
Nevada is also trying to keep prediction markets out of its jurisdiction and is in a lengthy court battle with Kalshi, which argues that it can’t be regulated by states and it offers contracts, not wagers.
NBA request
The league has not yet issued a statement on Giannis’ agreement with Kalshi. In May 2025, however, the NBA asked the CFTC to provide a regulatory framework for single-event games after Kalshi started offering moneylines and spreads on the league’s contests.
“If the CFTC does ultimately decide to permit the continued offering of sports event contracts, we encourage it to close this gap and to adopt a comprehensive regulatory and oversight framework analogous to those governing state sports betting markets, and to impose meaningful limitations on the continued expansion, via self-certification, of these markets into ever more exotic and narrow event propositions,” the NBA wrote in a letter to the federal agency.
The league has experienced multiple betting scandals over the last number of years. Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier is facing federal illegal gambling charges after he was arrested in October for allegedly taking part in a 2023 scheme.
Ex-Toronto Raptors center Jontay Porter was banned from the NBA after he manipulated playing time to help a group of bettors win player prop bets in 2024. Porter is currently awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to wire fraud charges.
