Kalshi, an Online Prediction Market, Will Open Up to Brokerages

Online prediction markets soared in popularity last year in the run-up to the United States elections — and then claimed vindication when they appeared to reflect Donald J.Trump’s victory faster than opinion polls did.Now one of the biggest players in the business, Kalshi, is moving to make its contracts available to more bettors looking to wager on some of the biggest events in politics, business and sports — from guessing the correct number of “yes” votes Robert F.

Kennedy Jr.will receive in his bid to become Mr.

Trump’s health secretary to which companies will run Super Bowl ads.Kalshi is expected to announce on Friday that users will now be able to buy into its prediction markets directly from brokerages, just as they can purchase stocks or cryptocurrencies.“Over time, integrating with brokers will enable the 160 million Americans who own stock to access prediction markets,” Tarek Mansour, Kalshi’s co-founder and chief executive, said in a statement.“Kalshi is committed to growing prediction markets into a trillion-dollar asset class — and we are not going to stop building until we do.”It’s the latest evolution of prediction markets, which have been around for years but became more prominent in the 2024 election cycle, amid a global influx of bettors.

Supporters of the platforms have said that they are more accurate than polls, driven by the wisdom of crowds and an ability to respond more quickly to breaking news.(It hasn’t always worked, making some big misses, including the 2016 U.S.

presidential election.)Bettors also stand to win if they correctly predict outcomes.A French trader who bet heavily on a Trump victory via contracts on another platform, Polymarket, won $85 million.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

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