Sports Still Dominate Kalshi Trading Despite the NBA Season Ending

Half the top ten most active markets were sports markets, and nine of the top 20 were sports markets.

Ziv Chen

Last Updated: July 3, 2025 3:04 PM EDT • 2 minute read

Sports Still Dominate Kalshi Trading Despite the NBA Season Ending — Pictured: Ilia Topuria (red gloves) fights Charles Oliveira (blue gloves) at UFC 317, one of Kalshi's most active markets. Photo by Stephen R. Sylvanie via Imagn Images.

Despite the NBA season being over, sports markets remained a driver on Kalshi last week, accounting for over half of the total volume. Half of the top ten most active markets were sports markets, and nine of the top 20 were sports markets. Leading sports markets included MLB and UFC.

In addition to sports, July 4's Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest represented nearly 4% of overall trading volume. The other major sporting markets in the top 20 consisted of wagers on FIFA Club World Cup games, WNBA games, and men's and women's professional tennis. People continue to take advantage of Kalshi promo codes.

However, overall volume in the top 20 markets failed to keep pace with what the NBA alone accomplished the previous week, an indicator of a slight decline in overall activity. Still, the 20 markets represented 83% of Kalshi's overall trading.

Of the non-sport wagers, the Democratic primary for the mayor of New York City created the most volume. Since Wimbledon is underway, tennis will likely be a healthy volume on Kalshi for the next few days.

Recent funding round

Recently, Kalshi raised $185 million in a funding round that valued the company at $2 billion, as reported by Reuters. Paradigm, a fund specializing in cryptocurrency, led the funding round and was joined by Sequoia, Multicoin, Neo, Bond Capital, and Citadel Securities CEO Peng Zhao.

The emergence of event contracts has led to a broader debate at financial and regulatory levels. The markets' proponents contend they are superior predictors to opinion polls as they aggregate expectations of people with financial exposure.

One of the site's key milestones was successfully battling a legal battle with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and getting approval to offer the presidential election-linked contracts.

Including college football

Despite its legal issues, Kalshi has diversified its sports offerings by announcing an expansion into college football games for the coming season. To date, 32 games have been listed, allowing users to wager on which team will prevail.

This expansion follows Kalshi's previous ventures into NFL and its successful launch of single-game markets for the March Madness tournament. While the CFTC considered blocking Kalshi’s markets on the Super Bowl, the regulator allowed it and sports markets have since become the dominant trade on the platform.

Kalshi college football markets limit themselves to moneyline-style bets, focusing only on straight-up winners.

Written by:
Ziv Chen

Ziv has over two decades of experience in the igaming and sports betting industry, having served in senior marketing and business development positions with both B2C and B2B companies, including Playtech and Microgaming. In 2019, Ziv decided to pursue his passion for writing and became a fulltime industry journalist, covering casino, sports, and gambling business news. He’s specialties include casino games and technology, US state gambling regulation, company performance, as well as gambling affiliates and marketing. As a Pitt graduate, Ziv is a diehard fan of all Pittsburgh sports teams, with the Steelers at the top of the list. In his free time, he enjoys reading crime fiction, biographies (mainly of sports personalities, but not only) and American history. Ziv’s Favorite quote: “We're going to pursue perfection, knowing full well we won't catch it, but we're going to relentlessly chase it," Mike Tomlin, Pittsburgh Steelers Head Coach.