I’ve been doing this job long enough to remember when it was newsworthy for the NFL Network to put betting lines on its ticker.
The official TV channel of the once-anti-gambling National Football League? Letting you know who’s an underdog on Sunday? With SPORTSBOOK odds?
Yes, it was news. It was even written about in the New York Times, under the headline "The N.F.L.’s New Play: Embrace Betting Ads, Watch the Money Pour In."
CNBC x Kalshi
— Kalshi (@Kalshi) December 4, 2025
The leading business news network integrates the leading prediction market.
Kalshi’s data will supercharge CNBC’s reporting: unfiltered, accurate and market-driven.
A new era of media is here. pic.twitter.com/9s1qzWUAPz
Life went on, but I still remember.
Now, when I see announcements like prediction market operator Kalshi partnering with CNBC (or CNN) "to incorporate real-time prediction data into … editorial coverage across … TV, digital, and subscription channels,” I just see those earlier days of post-PASPA sports betting.
“The world of finance depends on real-world outcomes; Kalshi predicts those outcomes,” said Tarek Mansour, CEO of Kalshi, in a press release on Thursday. “Together with CNBC, we’ll bring accurate, market-driven predictions to financial reporting. It’s the next evolution: moving from data about what’s happening now, to real-time forecasts about what’s happening next.”
This framing would have been useful for legal sports betting a few years ago. We aren’t promoting gambling on the NFL Network, we’re just providing real-time projections of who’s gonna win!
There’s even ticker news again! The Kalshi-CNBC announcement said that a “Kalshi ticker will run alongside segments of CNBC’s on-air programming.”
The tell-tale ticker
Kalshi has suggested on social media that these announcements herald “a new era of media.”
But me, the guy who remembers some stuff, says it feels a lot like an old new era of media. If you put on ESPN right now, you might see a partnership similar to what Kalshi and CNBC are talking about, but with DraftKings and sports odds standing in for prediction market projections and Jim Cramer.
In short: there are similarities between the prediction market partnerships with news networks and those that sportsbook operators formed with sports media. Prediction markets have even begun partnering with sports leagues, just as sportsbook operators have.
Anyway, we’re drifting closer to the question of whether prediction markets equal gambling, an answer to which looms ever larger with every trade facilitated by those federally regulated exchanges. And reader, I honestly don’t have an answer for you there.
However, it should be duly noted that prediction markets are facilitating de facto sports wagering at the moment in all 50 states, which is something that several state-level gambling regulators do not want. There are lawsuits ongoing in several states as a result.
So, some day, after all the lawyers and judges and lawmakers and regulators have had their say, we’ll know what is definitively legal. We just don’t know right this second. Just note that Kalshi isn’t partnering with ESPN and that the legality of sports event contracts offered by Kalshi and others is being challenged in and out of court.
The other stuff people can bet on via prediction markets, such as elections and economics data, is not as hotly contested by state gambling regulators. And that's the stuff outlets like CNBC and CNN probably care more about anyway.
All I’m saying, though, is that I quibble with the notion of prediction markets ushering in a new era of media. To me, it just feels like we’re back in 2021, and people are fainting over the NFL Network presenting data that suggests the Jets should lose again this weekend.
Now, we’re actually in 2025, and sports betting has been woven pretty neatly into sports. This bothers a lot of people, sure, but it’s happened.
Four years from now, maybe prediction market projections will be woven neatly into whatever show Anderson Cooper is hosting. And maybe people will be bothered then as well. That would probably be a good problem for prediction markets to have, because it means they're still around and relevant enough to get people riled up.
Let's just try to stay grounded here.
Traditional media needs money. Gambling companies (or alleged gambling companies) need customers. One is willing to pay, the other willing to accept. It’s really the same old story, updated for 2025.
