Kalshi signs exclusive deals with five MLB teams, but two lack exclusivity
Kalshi announced exclusive multi-year brand partnerships with five Major League Baseball teams: the Braves, Red Sox, Dodgers, Padres, and Giants. Four of the teams play in states without legal sports betting, positioning Kalshi where its event-contract model faces less competition from regulated sportsbooks. Trading on baseball event contracts has grown more than 36-fold year over year, the platform said. The deals follow Kalshi's earlier legal victory clearing the way for sports event contracts under Commodity Futures Trading Commission oversight.
Kalshi's MLB team push is a bet that branding beats geofencing costs. Stadium signage and official partner status drive user acquisition in states where sportsbooks cannot operate legally, giving Kalshi a temporary channel monopoly. That advantage narrows if state attorneys general succeed in blocking trading venue by venue, as Washington's halt order already demonstrates.
The platform must now defend contracts in Massachusetts and California courts while promoting them on jumbotrons. Each team deal becomes a litigation target, and any injunction against a specific state's fans voids the marketing spend behind that market. Rivals Polymarket and Novig face identical state exposure, but Kalshi's higher profile makes its partnerships the first test of whether CFTC registration can survive local sports-betting bans.