- Genius Sports announced a Kalshi partnership on Aug. 5 to supply official soccer data settling the exchange’s sports event contracts.
- Kalshi agreed to restrict certain market types under the integrity information-sharing terms of the agreement.
- Polymarket took the same official-data and integrity package a day earlier, plus exclusive U.S. Serie A streaming.
- Polymarket’s agreement took effect immediately, while the Kalshi release sets no start date for its soccer feeds.
NEW YORK – Genius Sports announced a partnership with Kalshi on Aug. 5 to supply the official real-time soccer data that will settle the exchange’s sports event contracts, a day after announcing a similar agreement with Polymarket. The two largest CFTC-regulated prediction markets have now contracted for the settlement and integrity infrastructure licensed sportsbooks already use.
What An Official-Data Settlement Source Changes
An event contract pays out on a stated outcome, and the exchange has to decide when that outcome occurred. Until now that determination sat with the venue, drawing on public scoreboards, broadcast feeds and unofficial sources, and that is where settlement disputes and delays start.
Naming an official data supplier moves the determination off the exchange’s own judgment and onto a licensed feed. In the Polymarket agreement, Genius Sports’ data “will be used to determine the outcome and settlement of covered sports contracts, ensuring each market resolves using the same verified event information supplied to professional leagues”. The Kalshi release uses the same construction, describing verified official data as a consistent source of truth for settling sports prediction market contracts.
That is the arrangement legal sports betting operators have run under since leagues began selling official data rights, and it carries the same three consequences. Contracts resolve faster because the feed arrives before the box score is final, a disputed settlement has an external reference the venue does not control, and the league becomes a paid counterparty to the market rather than a bystander.
Kalshi Agreed To Restrict Certain Market Types
The integrity language in the Kalshi agreement goes further than monitoring. Kalshi “will participate in Genius Sports’ established information-sharing processes, restricting certain market types and enhancing visibility”, according to the announcement, which licenses English Premier League, Serie A, Liga MX, Argentine Primera División and French Ligue 1 data.
Neither release names the restricted market types. Restricting what a venue may list is the mechanism state regulators use on sportsbooks, most commonly on college player props and on markets a league flags as manipulable by a single participant. An exchange accepting that condition by contract is accepting a limit on its own product catalog that comes from a commercial agreement, not a regulator.
“As the prediction market ecosystem continues to expand at a rapid pace, the use of official data and integrity services is more important than ever,” Adam Barrick, Kalshi’s head of sports partnerships, said in the announcement.
Polymarket’s Deal Adds Exclusive U.S. Serie A Streaming
The Aug. 4 Polymarket agreement pairs the settlement feed with exclusive U.S. live streaming and league intellectual property across selected competitions, including Serie A, and takes effect immediately across selected Genius Sports leagues for eligible U.S. users. The exchange holds official league partnerships across eight properties, from MLB and the NHL to Liga MX, Bundesliga, La Liga, Serie A, MLS and UFC, a roster wider than most of the prediction market apps competing with it.
Its integrity terms are worded for the leagues’ benefit. Polymarket’s participation gives “leagues and governing bodies greater visibility into related market activity and enabling real-time coordination around irregular trading patterns,” the release states. Irregular-trading referral is the core function of a sportsbook integrity unit.
“Trust, transparency and innovation are fundamental to the long-term development of sports prediction markets,” Ari Borod, Polymarket’s president of sports business development, said in the announcement.
Sportradar Signed Kalshi For The Same Services In June
The two deals close a procurement cycle that started on June 8, when Sportradar announced a multi-year global data and integrity agreement with Kalshi covering MLB, NHL, MLS and UFC among other properties, its first with a prediction market. Between the two suppliers, both major exchanges have now bought official league data, integrity monitoring and information-sharing.
That is the same stack that separates a licensed operator from an unlicensed one, and the exchanges have been buying it while arguing to the CFTC and in state courts that they are not sportsbooks.
The purchases cut both ways. They support the venues’ position that federally regulated exchanges can meet the integrity standards states demand, and they narrow the distinction those venues draw between an event contract and a wager, a line that already bent in May, when Kalshi was not a sportsbook, except when the numbers helped.
Neither release discloses a term length or financial terms. The Polymarket agreement is in force, so its covered markets resolve on the league feed rather than on the exchange’s own determination, and the Kalshi announcement sets no start date for its soccer feeds.
