DraftKings cofounder Matt Kalish has been tearing into Kalshi on social media, ripping the prediction-market platform with claims that it offers unfavorable odds, obscures true trading volume, and overhypes the popularity of its product.
Kalish, who cofounded DraftKings in 2012, stepped down from his executive role in March, though he remains on the company’s board. He has since launched Hardscope, an agency for independent content creators. On Sunday, he took aim at Kalshi on X/Twitter with a viral thread skewering the platform, citing frustration with a bet he placed on the PGA Championship.
According to Kalish, Kalshi remains “extremely niche” and is still years away from developing a product that can compete with traditional sportsbooks. He also argued the company, which recently raised $1 billion at a $22 billion valuation, inflates perceptions of popularity through users, investors, and employees driving online engagement, and criticized the way Kalshi reports trading volume as “misleading.”
“It’s called FAFO,” Kalish tells Front Office Sports when asked about his anti-Kalshi rant, using shorthand for the phrase “fuck around and find out.”
“Kalshi pissed me off when my PGA Championship bet got dumped to their market maker friends at a fraction of fair odds,” Kalish says. That made him question “how sports bets are handled on Kalshi and who benefits from it.”
