Kalshi files to self-certify a contract that would allow users to be on college athletes

A new filing from Kalshi to self-certify a contract suggests that the prediction market could be planning to offer bets on college athletes.

New filings submitted to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) by Kalshi on Tuesday, December 16, include an application to self-certify contracts titled “Will <player> enter/withdraw from the transfer portal in time period?” and “Will <player> transfer to <team> in <time period>?”

Those filings state that Kalshi could offer those contracts from the end of Wednesday, December 17, onwards. However, it’s worth noting that self-certifying contracts doesn’t necessarily mean that markets will be put up at the date specified, or indeed at all.

In fact, Kalshi has said in a statement shared with Readwrite that there is no concrete plan to list those contracts, saying: “We certify markets all the time that we do not end up listing. We have no immediate plans to list these contracts.

“Like all markets on Kalshi, users with material nonpublic information would be prohibited from trading on potential transfer portal markets. We have in-house and third-party surveillance systems that monitor for suspicious activity and if necessary, we refer cases to the CFTC for enforcement.”

Kalshi and bets on college athletes

The filing appears to refer to the NCAA transfer portal, a database of all college athletes who intend to transfer from one university to another. The portal is open between January 2 and January 16, although players can make their intent to transfer known earlier.

Up to this point, Kalshi has largely avoided offering bets on individual college athletes, although there are plenty of contracts available related to college sports in general.

Looking at the sports betting market in general, traditional regulated sportsbooks cannot offer bets on transfer portal entrants or destinations. If Kalshi did go ahead with it, it would be a sign of the prediction market pushing further into the gray regulatory area that it has been criticized for.

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