The Athletic in Serious Talks With Kalshi for Sponsorship Deal

The Athletic and Kalshi are in serious talks for a sponsorship deal, sources tell Front Office Sports. 

Multiple sources say TheNew York Times-owned sports outlet and Kalshi are in advanced talks. However, no deal is finalized, and The Athletic has actively held discussions with multiple betting and/or prediction-market companies since its deal with BetMGM expired earlier this year, one source tells FOS. The identities of others in talks with The Athletic were not clear.

Spokespeople for The Athletic and Kalshi declined to comment. 

Kalshi has plowed forward with big media and sports business sponsorships and raised money at ever-increasing valuations as it battles a tempest of state lawsuits challenging its legitimacy. Regulators in New York, Washington, Nevada, Minnesota, and elsewhere have sought to stop Kalshi from offering sports-event contracts in their states. Meanwhile, the Trump administration’s CFTC—the federal regulator that oversees prediction markets—is adamant that platforms like Kalshi are permitted to exist and offer sports trading, and has sued states including Kentucky, Arizona, and Illinois for allegedly violating federal regulatory jurisdiction. 

FOS previously reported that Kalshi was in advanced talks about a wide-ranging deal with Fox; less than a month later, that agreement was announced. The prediction-market exchange also has content integrations with CNN and CNBC. 

Kalshi and its rival, Polymarket, both have deals with the NHL. Kalshi separately has an agreement with the Blackhawks, while Polymarket has a partnership with the New York Rangers (notably, Kalshi has a deal with Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp., the entity that owns the arena. Under that agreement, the sixth-floor concourse is called the Kalshi Concourse). Kalshi also appears to have partnerships with the Red Sox and Dodgers that have not been formally announced, and joined in on ADI Predictstreet’s World Cup partnership midway through the tournament. 

In fact, Kalshi already sponsored Athletic content on TikTok during the World Cup. 

Sports leagues were initially slow to embrace prediction markets due to the controversy around sports-event contracts, although there has been more activity on that front lately. Polymarket has deals with MLB, MLS, and multiple international soccer leagues, including LaLiga and Serie A. Polymarket also has an agreement with the Yankees, while the Mets partnered with Novig, a smaller prediction-market platform that focuses exclusively on sports.

As football season approaches, The Athletic has been busy exploring new partnerships. FOS reported last week that it is in talks with the NFL about distributing content on the league’s digital platforms, potentially including NFL.com and the NFL+ app. It has quietly already reached a similar arrangement for some of its stories to be syndicated on NBA.com. 

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