Kalshi Signs Five MLB Teams as Prediction Market Partners

Kalshi announced on August 25, 2026 that it has signed exclusive, multi-year brand partnerships with five Major League Baseball clubs: the Atlanta Braves, Boston Red Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres, and San Francisco Giants. The deals make the federally regulated prediction market an official partner of each team, with the company still in talks with the league office about a broader MLB-level agreement.

The partnerships span in-stadium signage and social, online, radio, and fan activations, according to Kalshi’s announcement. The Los Angeles Dodgers deal goes furthest: Kalshi-branded LED signage around Dodger Stadium, naming rights to the ballpark’s Gold Glove Bar, and Kalshi-specific offers plus on-site activations in Centerfield Plaza throughout the season. The Boston Red Sox separately confirmed their own multi-year agreement, which puts Kalshi LED signage around Fenway Park, runs broadcast radio integrations on WEEI, and names Kalshi the club’s official and exclusive prediction market partner, per the team’s announcement.

Kalshi said baseball-related trading volume on its platform is up 36x year over year.

“The idea is that fans are already engaging with their favorite teams on Kalshi, so it only makes sense to extend that fandom to some of the most beloved baseball teams in America,” said Adam Barrick, Kalshi’s Head of Sports Partnerships, in the announcement.

The five-team sweep is Kalshi’s largest team-level push yet into a US sports league, and it lands while the company remains locked in a state-by-state legal fight over whether its sports event contracts are financial instruments under exclusive federal oversight or unlicensed gambling that states can police.

How the Kalshi Deals Are Structured

These are brand partnerships, not data or betting-rights deals. There is no official-league-data component and no wagering license changing hands, because Kalshi is not a sportsbook. The company operates as a Designated Contract Market regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, listing event contracts that resolve on the outcomes of future events, including games. Kalshi operates as a CFTC-regulated Designated Contract Market, and it argues its sports event contracts fall under exclusive federal jurisdiction rather than state gaming licenses.

The activations mirror how sportsbook sponsors entered ballparks after 2018 — signage, radio, branded spaces, app offers — but the product being advertised settles trades rather than taking bets. Kalshi valued itself at $22 billion in a recent funding round, and the company has pursued sports properties aggressively; its FIFA World Cup collaboration earlier in 2026 produced what Reuters described as a revenue windfall. The company said it is still negotiating with MLB on a league-level deal, which would extend the arrangement beyond the five club agreements.

The Court Fight Behind the Partnerships

The sponsorships arrive against an unresolved jurisdictional battle over Kalshi’s sports markets. On April 4, 2026, the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit affirmed a preliminary injunction blocking the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement from applying state gambling law to Kalshi, the first federal appellate ruling that sports event contracts on a CFTC-regulated exchange are swaps under exclusive federal jurisdiction. The decision was 2–1, and similar cases are pending in the Fourth, Sixth, and Ninth Circuits.

States have not waited for those rulings. A Michigan judge on June 29, 2026 barred Kalshi from offering sports event contracts to anyone in the state and threatened a $120,000 daily fine, making Michigan the second state after Nevada with a court-ordered block; a similar Massachusetts injunction is on hold pending appeal. Kalshi said it plans to fight the Michigan order, arguing it answers to the CFTC alone. The Red Sox deal lands in Massachusetts, where an injunction against Kalshi is on hold pending appeal, while the company fights similar state actions in Michigan, Nevada, and New Jersey.

Kalshi’s Sports Push So Far

The baseball agreements extend a run of institutional deals for the exchange. Kalshi signed a multi-year market-surveillance arrangement with Nasdaq earlier in August 2026, and named former CFTC official Jeff Bandman as CEO of its Kalshi Prime institutional arm days later. Regulators have pushed back in parallel: the CFTC warned prediction markets over deficient incentive-program filings, and a New York City Council probe examined prediction-market marketing to minors.

Whether the five club deals become a full league partnership now turns on the MLB negotiations, with the 2026 postseason six weeks away and baseball trading volume on the platform at 36 times last year’s level.