Kalshi partners with five MLB teams for multi-year deals as prediction markets storm pro sports

Kalshi just locked in multi-year brand partnerships with five of Major League Baseball’s most recognizable franchises: the Atlanta Braves, Boston Red Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres, and San Francisco Giants. The deals give the prediction market platform real estate across some of the most-watched stadiums in American sports.

What the deals actually look like

The partnerships span multiple activation types. Kalshi gets LED stadium signage, digital and radio promotions, branded spaces inside ballparks, and the ability to run in-person fan events at each team’s home venue.

The Dodgers deal is the splashiest of the bunch. Under that agreement, Kalshi picks up naming rights for the Golden Glove Bar, putting its brand in front of fans at one of baseball’s highest-attendance stadiums.

The timing maps neatly to Kalshi’s growth trajectory. Baseball trading volume on the platform has increased 36x year-over-year, a figure that suggests the company isn’t just spending marketing dollars speculatively. It’s doubling down on a category where users are already showing up in force.

The prediction market land grab in sports

Kalshi isn’t operating in a vacuum here. Polymarket, its most prominent competitor, announced an MLB-wide partnership back in March 2026. That deal gave Polymarket a league-level relationship rather than team-by-team arrangements, but the signal was the same: professional sports leagues are now comfortable aligning their brands with prediction market platforms.

The two companies represent different approaches to the same market. Polymarket runs on blockchain infrastructure and has historically attracted a crypto-native user base. Kalshi, founded in 2018, operates as a CFTC-regulated event contract exchange, positioning itself closer to traditional finance. Its latest funding round in May 2026 valued the company at $22B, a number that puts it in the same conversation as major fintech companies.

The regulatory distinction matters: Kalshi’s contracts are classified as event contracts under CFTC oversight, not sports bets under state gambling commissions.

Why MLB teams are saying yes

The 36x year-over-year increase in baseball trading volume suggests the flywheel is already spinning. More users trading baseball outcomes generates more liquidity, which makes the markets more attractive, which brings in more users. Stadium-level brand presence accelerates that cycle by putting the platform in front of people who are, almost by definition, intensely interested in sports outcomes.

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