Ahead of the announcement, MLB and the CFTC signed a Memorandum of Understanding <\/a>on Wednesday. The memo establishes a framework for the CFTC and MLB to discuss, cooperate and exchange information concerning issues of common interest including protecting the integrity of professional baseball and prediction markets, the CFTC wrote in a statement.<\/p>\n \u201cThrough this partnership, the CFTC is well-positioned to add additional tools to protect our markets from fraud, manipulation and other abuses. Thanks to MLB and Commissioner Manfred for working with us to protect the integrity of these growing markets,\u201d Selig wrote on X.<\/p>\n Arizona files criminal charges vs. Kalshi<\/p>\n Over the last few months, Kalshi has faced a wave of litigation in state and federal courts around the US. But an indictment unsealed this week in Arizona set a new precedent.<\/p>\n On Tuesday, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes filed criminal charges against KalshiEx LLC<\/a> and Kalshi Trading LLC for operating an illegal gambling business in Arizona without a gaming licence. The 20-count indictment, all misdemeanors, represents the first time that Kalshi has faced criminal charges in the US.<\/p>\n Among the charges are four counts of election wagering, including bets on the 2028 US presidential race, the 2026 Arizona gubernatorial race, the 2026 Arizona Republican gubernatorial primary and the 2026 Arizona Secretary of State race. Arizona law prohibits operating an unlicensed wagering business and separately bans betting on elections outright.<\/p>\n \u201cKalshi may brand itself as a \u2018prediction market,\u2019 but what it\u2019s actually doing is running an illegal gambling operation and taking bets on Arizona elections, both of which violate Arizona law,\u201d Mayes said<\/a>. \u201cNo company gets to decide for itself which laws to follow.\u201d<\/p>\n Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour critcised the indictments, writing on X: \u201cThe Arizona Attorney General\u2019s charges are baseless and a clear overreach. It\u2019s gamesmanship from a politician who\u2019s up for re-election.\u201d<\/p>\n Separately, a Bloomberg report on Thursday found that Kalshi raised more than $1 billion in a new funding round that valued the company at $22 billion. The valuation doubles an $11 billion valuation that the exchange received in December.<\/p>\n Kalshi $1 billion tournament challenge<\/p>\n In 2014, famed investor Warren Buffett offered a near-impossible proposition: If a contestant correctly picked all 63 games in the NCAA tournament, Buffet promised a payout of $1 billion.<\/p>\n Now, more than a decade later, Kalshi is bringing back the challenge. Given the high rate of upsets in March Madness, the odds of filling out a perfect bracket are an astounding 1 in 120 billion. It has not stopped Kalshi from offering the same amount to a customer if they pull off the improbable feat.<\/p>\n In Thursday\u2019s opening round, No. 16 seed Siena nearly upset No. 1 Duke in an East subregional matchup. Siena, the MAAC tournament champion, had a 1% probability to win at tip-off on Kalshi. But the hot-shooting Saints went up 33-22 in the first half en route to an 11-point lead at halftime. By the second half, Siena\u2019s odds topped out at 23%.<\/p>\n Duke, however, commenced on an 11-0 run early in the second half to close the deficit to two. The Blue Devils held Siena to 22 points in the latter half for a 71-65 win. The comeback saved a bevy of users on Kalshi. Duke ranks as the top choice among users to win the tournament, ahead of Arizona, Michigan and Houston.<\/p>\n Approximately 37.3% of all entrants took the Blue Devils to win the title. As of 1:30 pm ET, there were 83 perfect brackets that remained in the contest, according to Kalshi. SIG Parametrics, LLC, a member of the Susquehanna International Group of Companies, is financially backing the promotion, Kalshi wrote.<\/p>\n Matt is primarily responsible for long-form feature coverage on complex sports betting scandals. He also provides coverage on finance, M&A and other technological developments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The week includes the start of March Madness as well as a major partnership between Polymarket and MLB.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":553465,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,85922,130853,591,66037,129940,85],"class_list":["post-553464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cftc","tag-kalshi","tag-mlb","tag-polymarket","tag-prediction-markets","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Matt](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/bG9jYWw6Ly8vaWdhbWluZ2J1c2luZXNzLmNvbS93cC1jb250ZW50L3VwbG9hZHMvMjAyNS8xMS9tYXR0LXJ5YmFsdG93c2tpLXBy.webp\")
<\/a>Matt Rybaltowski<\/a><\/p>\n