Kalshi Lands 5 MLB Teams as Prediction-Market Boom Continues

Less than six months since Polymarket became the exclusive prediction-market partner of Major League Baseball, seven individual teams now have prediction-market agreements of their own—including five with Kalshi.

Kalshi came out swinging on Tuesday, unveiling exclusive, multiyear “brand partnerships” with the Braves, Red Sox, Dodgers, Padres, and Giants. That means Kalshi now has commercial relationships with one-sixth of the 30 MLB clubs. Under the deals, Kalshi will be featured on in-stadium signage, in social media posts, and more. As part of the deal with the Dodgers, the Gold Glove Bar at Dodger Stadium is being renamed the Kalshi 435 Club. 

Kalshi says baseball-related trading volume on its platform is 36 times higher than it was a year ago.

“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,” Kalshi’s head of sports partnerships, Adam Barrick, said in the press release.

The Red Sox, Dodgers, and Giants have since issued their own press releases confirming the agreements. 

“Our shared commitment to innovation and excellence makes this partnership a natural fit, while creating new opportunities to engage Red Sox fans across Fenway Park and through our digital and broadcast channels,” said Red Sox EVP and chief marketing and partnerships officer Troup Parkinson. 

“The Dodgers are always looking for innovative ways to connect with our fans, and Kalshi represents an exciting new category,” said Lorenzo Sciarrino, SVP of global partnerships for the Dodgers.

“Creating unmatched experiences for our fans is a top priority, and we’re excited to work with Kalshi to deliver on that commitment,” said Giants SVP of partnerships Steve Tseng. 

The Braves and Padres did not respond to requests for comment.

Tuesday’s flurry comes about three weeks after the Yankees signed a deal with Polymarket through the rest of this season. That announcement came roughly one week after the Mets became the first MLB team to sign a prediction-market partnership—through an exclusive, multiyear agreement with Novig.

Although seven teams now have team-level deals with prediction markets—or nearly one-quarter of MLB clubs—not every franchise is ready to join the party. Front Office Sports reached out to every MLB team to ask about prediction-market plans. Many did not respond, although representatives for the Guardians, Nationals, Phillies, and Rockies said those teams don’t have any prediction-market partnerships. 

Sports-event contracts from Kalshi and other prediction-market platforms are the subject of numerous lawsuits winding through the U.S. court system; several states argue they should be treated like traditional sports betting, which is regulated by individual states.

The Red Sox, Dodgers, and Braves began rolling out their activations, including through signage at games and sponsored emails, ahead of the announcements. The moves led to online speculation that teams were reaching deals quietly with platforms to avoid public ridicule.  MLB received a lot of backlash to the Polymarket deal; Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.) told FOS, “It is astonishing and appalling that Major League Baseball would, in effect, be complicit in this.” 

However, sources tell FOS that teams are not intentionally hiding these partnerships to avoid public pushback. “If teams were worried about fan sentiment, they wouldn’t do the deals,” says one source who has worked on commercial partnerships like this for teams in one of the big four North American sports leagues. A source familiar with the matter tells FOS the premature Red Sox rollout was “just a wonky timing thing.”