A new exclusive report from Axios has revealed that Kalshi and CNN have partnered in a landmark deal that will push the event contracts company and prediction markets into the mainstream.
Key Takeaways
- Kalshi and CNN have agreed to a first-of-its-kind partnership.
- The deal helps to further legitimize Kalshi with mainstream media.
- The partnership comes as Kalshi continues to expand across other platforms.
Per the report, the partnership will see Kalshi’s data featured across CNN’s network of platforms, including television, digital, and the network’s social channels.
The first of its kind deal has the potential to push Kalshi to new heights as the “authoritative source for real-time probabilities,” Tarek Mansour, CEO and co-founder of Kalshi, told Axios in the report.
The deal will also provide CNN access to Kalshi data through a marketplace API, allowing for real-time information to be presented across platforms via a data ticker. It includes prediction market content related not only to politics, but also to news, culture, and even weather.
Mansour, for his part, expressed his belief that the move could present opportunities for mainstream media news to move from presenting and explaining “what has already happened,” to “help audiences interpret what may happen more accurately in the future.”
The report, released Tuesday, details that the integration partnership is largely the brainchild of CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten, with his data-driven journalism background helping spearhead the deal, and plans to lean into these newly available insights live on air via the network’s linear TV station and new streaming service.
The deal will also notably exclude any licensing fees for CNN to access Kalshi’s data, with the understanding that the partnership will be exclusive, and CNN’s prestige will help legitimize prediction markets as a whole, despite ongoing battles regarding their legality across several states.
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Kalshi making inroads on multiple fronts
The partnership is just the latest in a string of moves by Kalshi as it continues to make waves across not only the world of politics and pop culture, but also sports contracts.
In November, PrizePicks announced a partnership with Kalshi to offer prediction markets directly within their app, with the multi-year contract serving as another tool to make markets more easily accessible in states that lacked legal sports betting.
Additionally, Kalshi kicked off the NHL season by partnering with the league in a similar first-of-its-kind partnership between one of the Big Four sports leagues and the prediction market platform, similarly serving to legitimize Kalshi’s place in the growing landscape of event contracts.
“As prediction markets continue to evolve at a rapid pace, partnering with the two market leaders, Kalshi and Polymarket, provides a tremendous opportunity for the broadest fan engagement during the NHL season,” said Keith Wachtel, president of NHL business. “Polymarket and Kalshi are ideal partners as this category continues to grow and expand.”
