Genius Sports expands its focus on prediction markets
Genius Sports signed separate agreements with Kalshi and Polymarket to expand its presence in the prediction markets sector, with contracts covering official data, marketing, and integrity services. Both platforms will use the company's data to settle sports contracts, with a strong emphasis on football (soccer), while the agreement with Polymarket also incorporates exclusive live streaming rights and league intellectual property for selected competitions on its US platform. The agreements were announced shortly before the provider's second-quarter results presentation and did not disclose financial terms.
In the case of Kalshi, Genius Sports will provide official real-time data from its entire football (soccer) portfolio, including leagues such as the Premier League, Serie A, Liga MX, Argentina's Primera División, and Ligue 1, which the platform will use as the official source to determine and settle covered sports contracts, aiming to reduce reliance on unofficial or delayed information. Kalshi will also participate in Genius's integrity information exchange processes, with restrictions on certain market types and greater visibility into linked trading activity, in addition to marketing and media services through Legend properties. The agreement extends a previous relationship, as Genius had agreed in June to provide official data for Kalshi's collaboration with the Argentine Football Association during the FIFA World Cup 2026.
The agreement with Polymarket also includes official data and integrity services but adds live streaming rights and league intellectual property for selected official competitions, so eligible users in the United States will be able to watch certain matches alongside related real-time contracts, including those from Italy's Serie A, Polymarket's exclusive partner in that country. As with Kalshi, Polymarket will use Genius's data to determine settlements for covered markets and will participate in the integrity information exchange system, allowing leagues and governing bodies to gain greater visibility into market activity and coordinate in the face of irregular trading patterns. The agreement adds to Polymarket's sports infrastructure alliances, which include ties with MLB, Liga MX, the Bundesliga, LaLiga, Serie A, MLS, NHL, the ATP Tour, and UFC.
The emphasis on football (soccer) is explained by the trading activity generated by the FIFA World Cup 2026, a tournament in which Kalshi recorded approximately $27 billion in volume and nearly 3 million users, figures that almost doubled its initial projections. Macquarie estimates calculated that prediction markets generated over $50 billion in volume during June, with Kalshi responsible for nearly two-thirds of the total, while H2 Gambling Capital estimated that the activity of these markets amounted to approximately 27 percent of the legal sports betting volume in the United States during the World Cup, with participation tripling from about 9 percent at the beginning of 2026. The new agreements also reflect the competition among sports data providers to become key infrastructure for these platforms, in a context where Sportradar signed a global alliance with Kalshi in June and this month sealed another agreement with Polymarket as the official prediction market provider for the ATP Tour.
Tags: Genius Sports, Kalshi, Polymarket, Prediction markets, Platforms, Sports, Sportsbook