Popular prediction market platform Kalshi is featuring one of the biggest global sports stars of all time in its latest marketing campaign.
Key Takeaways
- Soccer superstar Lionel Messi joins Giannis Antetokounmpo and other pro athletes to represent Kalshi.
- The prediction market platform signed a marketing deal with the Argentina national team.
- The agreement includes the use of data from Genius Sports to settle prediction markets.
Argentina and Inter Miami star Lionel Messi posted an ad on his Instagram page Sunday, promoting a giveaway through the trading exchange.
The promotion is part of a recent Kalshi sponsorship deal with Messi's national team, Argentina, and includes signed jerseys from Messi and teammates Nicolas Otamendi and Rodrigo De Paul.
Enjoying Covers content? Add us as a preferred source on your Google account
Mega star
Messi, still one of the world's biggest soccer stars and the captain of Argentina's 2022 World Cup-winning team, will likely remain a central figure in the deal, as he’s the most popular athlete Kalshi has been linked to since it began a big sports partnership push earlier this year.
“Argentina is the standard of excellence in world football,” Adam Barrick, head of sports partnerships at Kalshi, said. “That's exactly who Kalshi belongs alongside. We're building the future of how people engage with live events, and partnering with the reigning champions of the beautiful game is the clearest signal we can send about where we're headed.”
The trading exchange has signed partnership deals with numerous pro athletes, including Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo, an investor who has been featured in Kalshi commercials. Golfer Bryson DeChambeau, Edmonton Oilers superstar Connor McDavid, and WNBA star Breanna Stewart are also investors or partners of the trading exchange.
Kalshi has marketing agreements with the NHL, the Chicago Blackhawks, and Madison Square Garden (home of the NBA champion New York Knicks).
Agreement details
The marketing agreement will run through the World Cup and includes co-branded activations, coordinated social media campaigns like the one featuring Messi, and Kalshi’s use of the Argentine Football Association's (AFA) intellectual property.
The trading exchange has access to Argentina’s colors and crest for marketing, and Genius Sports, the data and streaming partner of Argentina’s national team, will provide Kalshi with data for prediction markets.
“By using verified official data as a consistent source of truth, the agreement will contribute to enhancing transparency while reducing reliance on unofficial or delayed data sources,” Kalshi said in the statement. “Kalshi will also participate in Genius Sports' integrity information-sharing processes to strengthen market transparency and provide professional sports leagues with greater visibility into related market activity.”
Argentina, which is fifth at +979 on Kalshi to win the World Cup, begins its title defense Tuesday when it faces Algeria in the group stage in Kansas City.
“The timing could not be more fitting,” Kalshi said. “The 2026 World Cup is being held on American soil for the first time in 32 years, and prediction markets have never been more mainstream. Fans across the United States now have a legal, regulated platform to put their convictions to the test, and the world's most followed football team to do it around.”
AFA and prediction markets
Kalshi, which is federally regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, has been offering sports event contracts in nearly every U.S. state, even in jurisdictions where sports betting is illegal, since early 2025.
The trading platform has numerous markets available for Argentina, including Messi to score a goal at -104. The team is listed as a -251 favorite to win Tuesday in a market with over $722,000 in volume by Monday afternoon.
"Kalshi is a leader in its category, and their decision to partner with AFA is a testament to the global strength our brand has built since 2017,” Leandro Petersen, AFA chief commercial and marketing officer, said. “Each new alliance of this caliber reinforces that the path we charted for AFA's international expansion is the right one, and that the world's leading organizations want to be part of it."
