Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour said in an interview with Front Office Sports that he does not consider Polymarket to be the company’s primary competitor. Instead, Mansour said his focus is on the threat posed by CME Group, Robinhood and sports betting operators as the prediction market sector expands.
Kalshi’s position in regulated prediction markets
Data from Bank of America analysts showed that Kalshi accounts for about 91% of the regulated prediction market in the United States. Of roughly $1.6 billion in industry open interest, Kalshi holds about $1 billion. The same data also showed that Kalshi lists around 97% of active markets, giving it broad coverage within the regulated segment.
Trading activity has also placed Kalshi close to Polymarket in recent volume figures. Over the past 30 days, Kalshi recorded approximately $9.8 billion in trading volume, compared with about $9.9 billion for Polymarket. Even with those totals near each other, Mansour’s comments framed the competitive field around firms with established user bases, market infrastructure or sports betting operations rather than around Polymarket alone.
CME, FanDuel, Robinhood and Rothera enter the discussion
CME launched FanDuel Predicts together with FanDuel last December. Robinhood, after building a prediction market in 2025 based on the Kalshi exchange, has begun shifting some contracts to Rothera, a platform it is developing in partnership with Susquehanna. These moves were part of the competitive landscape Mansour identified in the interview.
Mansour also called for Polymarket to be brought into a regulatory framework. He said insider trading cases on Polymarket’s offshore platform have damaged the broader industry. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission released a 267-page rule proposal on June 10 that would allow most sports contracts while banning in-game betting and pre-game college sports. The public comment period for the proposal is 45 days.