Kalshi signs exclusive multi-year brand partnerships with five MLB teams
Kalshi signed exclusive, multi-year brand partnerships with five Major League Baseball teams: the Braves, Red Sox, Dodgers, Padres, and Giants. The prediction market platform announced the deals on August 25. Trading on baseball event contracts has grown more than 36-fold year over year, according to Kalshi. The deals mark Kalshi's first official partnership inroads with MLB clubs. The announcement comes as Kalshi faces lawsuits in Massachusetts and California over its sports event contracts, including action from the California Attorney General.
The MLB deals give Kalshi stadium visibility and team marketing rights at the exact moment state courts are threatening to void its sports contracts jurisdiction by jurisdiction. Each partnership is a bet that fan engagement can outrun legal risk: if Washington's August 19 geofencing deadline holds, a Dodgers-branded contract might be tradable in Los Angeles but void a hundred miles north. The five-team footprint also puts Kalshi alongside Polymarket in MLB's official-partner tier, tightening the race for regulated market share.
But the deals create tension with existing casino sponsors like FanDuel, which holds co-exclusive status as an Official Sports Betting Partner of MLB. For teams, the dual sponsorships force a delicate balance between gaming incumbents and the prediction-market newcomers. Massachusetts or California wins an injunction, teams could face pressure to distance themselves from a partner they just put on their jersey.
The partnership push comes as Kalshi's federal preemption defense is being dismantled by state courts, with Washington, Wisconsin, and New York already rejecting the argument that CFTC registration shields event contracts from local gambling law.