FIFA World Cup added 3 million users to Kalshi
Kalshi added 3 million new users during the FIFA World Cup 2026, as trading volume in prediction markets grew in line with the tournament. According to CNBC, more than $1.2 billion was traded in contracts predicting the World Cup winner, a record for a single market on the platform. That market closed on Sunday, after Spain's victory over Argentina in the final.
Vijay Viswanathan, associate dean for Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University, explained to the media that no sport compares to football, which is played in virtually every country in the world, so in terms of total addressable market, there is nothing that comes close to the World Cup.
The company's commercial strategy combined sports and entertainment. Kalshi partnered with ADI Predictstreet, an official sponsor of World Cup prediction markets, to deploy joint advertising inside stadiums, and teamed up with OpenAI to display the odds of its contracts when users searched for tournament matches on ChatGPT. Other campaigns included Croatian footballer Luka Modric, coach José Mourinho, and an alliance with the Argentine national team that resulted in a mention by Lionel Messi on Instagram.
Tarek Mansour, CEO of Kalshi and head of marketing strategy, stated that the platform's volumes follow the news and that this was a large part of the focus during the World Cup, with priority placed on enabling creativity based on what was happening. The executive highlighted execution speed as a key factor and cited as an example an advertisement with professional ex-footballers playing an informal match, launched on a Friday and produced in less than 24 hours.
The company also expanded its advertising beyond football, with a campaign starring actor Timothée Chalamet in June, coinciding with his appearances at New York Knicks games during the NBA Finals, and with a spot featuring Colombian singer J Balvin this month. Elizabeth Johnson, executive director of the Wharton Neuroscience Initiative at the University of Pennsylvania, interpreted these actions as a way to communicate relevance to audiences less interested in sports, taking advantage of the moment to highlight the omnipresence of these markets.
In parallel, the regulatory dispute remains open regarding contracts linked to sports events. States argue that they function as sports betting, an activity under their jurisdiction, while Kalshi argues that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which oversees swaps and derivatives, has exclusive authority over prediction markets. Mansour dismissed the opposition and attributed it to gambling companies concerned about losing their dominant position.
The challenge now facing the platform is to convert new registrations into recurring users, as trading volume on days without World Cup matches was lower than on match days. For Mansour, this pattern responds to a cycle already observed after other major events, in which volume rises, temporarily falls, and then grows again with new news cycles. The executive suggested that one would have to believe that there will be no news after Sunday, which is unlikely, and maintained that it is more probable that many things will happen in the world and that the company will be there to serve them.
Tags: Kalshi, Tarek Mansour, 2026 FIFA World Cup, prediction markets