Kalshi is a provider of prediction markets, covering sports, politics, economics, financials, and more besides.
Players can ‘buy’ and ‘sell’ positions with a single click, with Kalshi delivering fantastic odds and commission fees of just 2% on each bet or trade.
| Kalshi Welcome Offer | Trade $100 of markets to receive a $10 bonus |
| Sports | Football, basketball, baseball, hockey, soccer, tennis, golf, motorsport, chess, esports |
| Deposit Methods | Visa, Mastercard, Apple Pay, bank transfer, wire transfer, crypto (BTC, XRP, USDC, SOL) |
| Withdrawal Methods | Visa, Mastercard, bank transfer, online banking, USDC |
| Withdrawal Speed | USDC (immediate), Visa and Mastercard (within 12 hours), online banking (within 24 hours), bank transfer (3-4 days) |
| Restricted States | Currently available in 50 states, but legal battles are ongoing with state regulators |
| Legal Age | 18+ |
| Mobile App | Yes, both iOS and Android |
Established in 2018, Kalshi has grown to offer full event and single game markets across football, basketball, hockey, baseball, and numerous other sports.
In sports like football and basketball, players can ‘bet’ on the three key betting markets: game winner, spread, and totals. But there is a general lack of wagering options and features here.
Kalshi is a prediction market, rather than a betting site. Rather than placing bets, you’ll be taking out event contracts – don’t worry, this is essentially the same thing as sports betting. We’ll explain more later in this Kalshi review.
At the time of writing, Kalshi is the leading prediction market in the United States, taking more bets – and having higher liquidity – than its main rival, Polymarket.
And in this Kalshi review, we’ll explore the other ways that they are the leader in prediction markets… and why they are ready to take on traditional sportsbooks, too.
When researching this Kalshi review, it quickly became apparent that the operator isn’t big on bonuses and promotions – unlike many other gambling sites in the United States.
There is a welcome bonus available, which equates to $10 in bonus funds. However, you’ll only receive this once you have completed $100 of contract trades.
Prediction markets are different from traditional sportsbooks, which is why their welcome bonuses are different too – they are licensed by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), rather than sportsbook regulators.
The best thing about this is that there are no wagering requirements on the bonus; although, you should note the T&Cs in the section below.
The rules about the Kalshi sign-up bonus are straightforward enough.
When you register for an account, you can opt into the offer by entering our referral bonus code.
After completing your registration, you will need to complete $100 of trades within your first 90 days as a Kalshi customer. It doesn’t matter if you win or lose, you will just need to log $100 of activity.
And that’s it. You’ll then be handed $10 in bonus funds, which comes with no restrictions or wagering requirements.
There’s no minimum deposit requirement attached to the bonus, but remember that you need to transact $100 in completed contracts in 90 days – that may be a factor in deciding how much you want to deposit, and when.
As mentioned, Kalshi isn’t a sportsbook as such; technically, it’s a prediction market.
Let’s use the example of a tennis match between Jannik Sinner and Alex Zverev. You can buy ‘yes’ positions on either player at the price shown on screen, which reflects the perceived probability of either player winning.
Or, you can buy the ‘no’ side, which predicts something won’t happen. So, a ‘no’ trade on Sinner is predicting that Zverev will win the match.
Let’s say you want to back Sinner at a price of $0.89. You buy ten ‘yes’ contracts for a cost of $8.90.
In all trades, each winning contract is settled at $1. Each losing contract is settled at $0. So, if Sinner does win this match, you’ll earn $10 (ten contracts at $1) minus your $8.90 cost, for a net profit of $1.10.
If Sinner loses, you will also lose your initial $8.90.
Kalshi offers a huge range of sports, including basketball, football, baseball, hockey, and a comprehensive A-Z, with contract types including match winner, totals, spreads, futures, and even fantasy markets – e.g., which quarterback will be the top fantasy points scorer.
Of course, one thing Kalshi lacks is the depth of bet types that a sportsbook has, as well as the ability to place parlays of your choosing. But I think that most players will be satisfied by the options available at this prediction market.
Although simplistic, I enjoyed using the Kalshi site. Click the ‘sport’ header near the top of the screen, use the menu on the left-hand side to locate your favorite sports, then cycle through the options of the upcoming events that you can trade.
There are three ways to trade on Kalshi: via their desktop site, or alternatively by downloading the iOS or Android app to your device.
In conducting my research for this Kalshi review, I downloaded both to separate devices. And the experience was basically the same in each case.
In fact, I’m going to say that I preferred using the app over the desktop site. It’s less cluttered, with simple navigation allowing you to switch between sports and the other categories of trading (politics, economics etc). Trades can be opened and closed with a single click, too.
The key to it all was that it was easy to register for an account via the app. I completed the sign up form, uploaded my verification documents (a copy of my passport and a mobile phone bill as proof of address), and within moments, I was a live Kalshi customer.
The Kalshi Android app is available for direct download via the Google Play Store.
I really enjoyed using it, and that seemed to be a feeling shared by my fellow traders: at the time of writing, the Kalshi Android app has a store rating of 4.4.
The process of using the app is really smooth, with each new page loading quickly as you swipe between sports and markets.
There are regular updates for the app too, so it seems to improve with each new iteration – another strength of Kalshi’s Android platform.
The Kalshi review score in the App Store is even higher, with an excellent 4.7 out of 5.
The iOS app has essentially the same build as the Android version, which means a seamless experience as you navigate between sports and events using the intuitive headers and menus.
My only gripe was that when I downloaded the Kalshi iOS app to my smartphone, I was surprised to see that the file size was 144.6MB. Normally, I’d expect a sportsbook app to be less than 100MB, so if you have an older generation device, this might be something to consider.
But that’s a minor gripe in what is otherwise an excellent app for placing your sports ‘bets’.
As mentioned earlier in this Kalshi review, this is a prediction market platform; NOT sports betting.
The difference is that Kalshi is regulated by the CFTC as a designated contract market under federal derivatives law.
So while sports betting is legal in some states but not others, Kalshi – and other prediction markets – can be legally accessed in all 50 states in America.
At the time of writing, some state lawmakers were trying to argue that Kalshi provides sports bets, just in a different format to traditional sportsbooks. We’ll update this page should the legal status of Kalshi change in the future.
Kalshi is a legitimate company that is headquartered in New York, and their customers have the peace of mind of knowing that the platform is secured using the most robust online technologies, including SSL encryption.
Although customer support isn’t available 24/7 at Kalshi, I found at least four ways in which you can contact them between the hours of 08:00 and 15:00 ET.
The quickest way that I discovered when testing for my Kalshi review was the live chat feature, which was staffed by actual humans, rather than an AI bot.
You can also contact them via email, phone, or via their X handle, @Kalshi.
As mentioned, I got a response to my live chat request within a minute or two, with a human being dealing with my request promptly and politely. Other users have reported that it takes around 30 minutes to an hour for emails to be replied to.
Although Kalshi does offer opportunities to trade live sporting events once they are underway, the options are far more limited than they are at a traditional sportsbook.
Although there’s a decent range of sports and events covered, for the most part Kalshi only offers the ‘moneyline’ market, i.e. who will win the game, for live trading.
Don’t forget too that trades don’t always get matches immediately if there’s low liquidity. So, if you want to buy or sell, there’s a chance that in low key markets your trade won’t be completed during live markets – or it might only be matched once the action has shifted against your favor.
I was quite disappointed by the payment process at Kalshi.
They accept Visa and Mastercard, as you would expect, but deposits come with a $2 transaction fee – if you were depositing $10, for instance, this would be the equivalent of a 20% charge. That’s not cool.
You can beat the fees by using cryptocurrency as your deposit method of choice, but note that only USD Coin is accepted. Bank transfer and wire transfer are also free of charge, but they don’t allow for instant deposits – you’ll have to wait around for a few hours before the funds hit your account.
The minimum deposit ranges from $1 (Visa, Mastercard, USD Coin) to $10 for bank transfer, although wire transfers have a minimum deposit of $1,000.
I used a bank transfer for my withdrawal. There were no fees and I was pleasantly surprised by how long it took, with my funds hitting my bank in around 48 hours. If I had used USD Coin, the withdrawal would have been completed instantly, and free of charge.
You can also use debit card and online banking withdrawals, but these again incur a $2 fee.
If you live in a state where sports betting is legal, you have an interesting decision to make: will you stick with the greater depth and coverage provided by a sportsbook, or take the better pricing, as is often the case, at prediction markets like Kalshi?
Here’s some reasons why you might choose Kalshi:
Kalshi is a prediction market that offers ‘yes’ and ‘no’ contracts on sporting events and other categories. Correct trades are settled at $1 per contract, whereas inaccurate trades see stakes lost, like in sports betting.
Because Kalshi is regulated as a financial trading platform, rather than as a sports betting site, it is live and legal in all 50 states.
Kalshi is a legit company, with a New York headquarters that employs hundreds of people. Both their iOS and Android app have been downloaded thousands of times, and have high review scores in the respective stores.
Yes, players can trade with real money, with both wins and losses on positions possible.
Kalshi charges a fee on trades, which are approximately 1.2%. But their prices tend to be more generous than the odds provided by sportsbooks for the same outcomes.
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