Prediction-markets operator Kalshi has secured a fresh funding round at a $22 billion valuation — almost double the $11 billion mark it reached at the end of 2025 — pulling the regulated US contract platform past sports-betting incumbents DraftKings and Flutter Entertainment in equity value, even as those incumbents pour hundreds of millions into prediction-market launches of their own.
The new mark, reported on Bloomberg Crypto by Emily Nichols, also lifts Kalshi above rival Polymarket, which had been chasing a similar number. "It's almost double what it was even just in the end of last year, when it was at about 11 billion," Nichols said. "It's more than its rival as well. Polymarket — we had briefly heard was chasing a number around that mark, but I think the most latest reports that we have put it at about 15 billion is what it's looking for now. So it definitely makes Kalshi the largest player, but it's also the largest regulated prediction market in the US. Polymarket, of course, much of its volume is on the offshore international platform that it has, while its US app is rather small at the moment."
For the listed sports-betting operators, the read across is unforgiving. Bloomberg's Chris Palmeri put the new valuation in context against the publicly traded book. "Kalshi's $22 billion market valuation — bigger than DraftKings, bigger than Flutter, which is the parent company of FanDuel," he said. "It's funny as somebody who's covered this for a while. If you go back eight, nine years ago, DraftKings and FanDuel were the kind of new kids on the block, had this sort of quasi-legal product, daily fantasy, that was sweeping the country and they were raising tons of money, spending like as much as they possibly could on marketing, and they became the two major players in online sports betting in the US. Now they're — what they did, is being done to them, by the prediction market folks."
Both DraftKings and Flutter have launched their own prediction-market products in response, but with little to show for it. "They both launched products, are spending 200, 300 million this year, each of them, on prediction-market products, but right now don't have a lot of traction," Palmeri said. Pressed on whether either company is yet disclosing prediction-market revenue, he was direct: "They didn't on the latest calls and it's minimal at this point."
The valuation gap also reflects regulatory positioning. Kalshi has spent the last year staffing up in Washington — including a new policy hire poached from former SEC chair Paul Atkins' office — and is at the centre of a litigation thicket as US states attempt to block its expansion into sports-style contracts. "Kalshi is being sued, and it's also suing a bunch of states all across the US that are disputing its right to offer predictions in their states, particularly around sports bets," Nichols said. "That's a big area of contention. And lawmakers are incredibly interested in the power of prediction markets. We've been seeing headlines about insider trading on these platforms, some of which is being cracked down on, some of which seems to also still be going under the radar."
A coordinated lobbying push has built around the company. "There's also a major regulatory group that's been set up in DC, the coalition that's over there protecting prediction markets," Nichols said. "Kalshi is a major part of that. It's definitely a major lobbying effort that's going on over there right now."
For the legacy books, the catch-up plan is being plotted around the sports calendar. Palmeri said DraftKings and FanDuel are aiming to use the World Cup and the start of the NFL season as their first big distribution moments, after fielding prediction-market products only since January. "Their products are not up to where Kalshi is. Kalshi has all kinds of features that they've yet to roll out, all different kinds of bets that DraftKings and FanDuel are just getting started on. But it's still early days. They really just started in January. They both have said they were going to be a big push starting with the World Cup next month and then going into NFL season."
There is one structural benefit to the new format that even Palmeri, who covers the sportsbook majors, conceded matters. "This is a unique time because prior to this year you couldn't use FanDuel or DraftKings in California where I live, for example, and now through this prediction market product I can. So we'll see if that translates into more bettors." For Kalshi, holding a national licence the sportsbooks have not been able to engineer for themselves, that question is exactly the one its $22 billion price tag is now asking the market to answer.