Matt Kalish’s Twitter Diatribe, Polymarket Parlays, California Cardrooms Make This Week’s Bingos & Busts
Our weekly wrap-up is packed with sometimes funny, potentially telling and often unsettling gambling industry news.
As we head into Memorial Day Weekend, let’s look back at the week that was in the gambling business. An epic Tweetstorm from an industry luminary, ever-increasing congressional pressure on prediction markets, and a rather hilarious spin on standard sports betting terminology topped the news.
Here’s our weekly recap of winners and losers around the industry:
Bust: Matt Kalish’s Prediction Market Rant Goes Off the Rails
The Twitter tirade that began last weekend continues, as DraftKings co-founder Matt Kalish characterizes prediction markets as niche products that don’t come close to matching what sports betting apps offer, calls out their questionable if not unethical marketing practices, and denounces the inconsistent regulation of exchanges and sportsbooks. All fair points, but laden with hypocrisy, personal attacks and profanity, the rant borders on unhinged. Kalish is absorbing a healthy dose of backlash from the sports betting community, and the Circles Off podcast uncovered information tied to Kalish’s DraftKings stock that reveals potential financial motivation.
Bingo: Republicans Want Answers
Last month, we wrote that House Republicans lobbed softballs at CFTC Chair Mike Selig, but being the fair, rational, call ‘em as we see ‘em type, we applaud GOP Senators for grilling Coalition for Prediction Markets Senior Advisor Patrick McHenry, their former colleague, during Wednesday’s subcommittee hearing on sports betting. The tough questions from Sens. Ted Cruz, Marsha Blackburn and John Curtis mark a departure from their party leader’s hands-off approach to prediction markets. With President Trump’s approval rating at historic lows, might this be representative of broader waning support for a lame duck?
Bingo: COMBINATORIC ATHLETIC OUTCOME CONTRACTS!
Okay, we feel a bit silly giving this a bingo, and yes, the all caps and exclamation point denote sarcasm, but on some level, you have to admire Polymarket’s creativity in renaming what we all know are parlays. Poetic license firmly in hand, the prediction markets operator used the term “Combinatoric Athletic Outcome Contracts” while letting the CFTC know it will be offering multi-leg bets, Sportico’s Dan Bernstein reported on Wednesday. Nobody put it better than Sports Betting Hall of Famer Joe Brennan Jr., who called the word salad ”peak obfuscation through nomenclature.”
Bingo: California Cardrooms Win Reprive
San Francisco Superior Court Judge Richard Darwin issued a preliminary injunction halting enforcement of new rules ginned up by California Attorney General Rob Bonta that could cripple the state’s cardrooms at the behest of the tribes. An order from the Bureau of Gambling Control, a division of the Justice Department, to ban blackjack-style games from cardrooms represents overreach by the agency, Darwin ruled. The preliminary injunction expires in 45 days, and another hearing is set for June 30, but for now, cardrooms can keep dealing blackjack.
Bust: Prediction Markets Spoil ‘Survivor’
It’s not in the same universe of concern as insiders profiting from the capture of Nicolás Maduro or invasion of Iran, but for fans of “Survivor” who happen also to follow prediction markets, the suspense of the reality show has been ruined. Seasons are filmed nearly a year in advance, and by the time episodes air, it seems, people-in-the-know are betting on the outcomes. While the New York Times was onto this back in March, it came to a head Wednesday night, when Aubry Bracco emerged as the winner of the 50th season. Bracco was bet from a 75% favorite the day Kalshi opened the market (about six weeks before the first episode aired) to 98% on the day of the season finale. Kalshi says its investigation has revealed no insider malfeasance, but something still doesn’t feel right. And to many observers, there’s a simple solution: Stop offering markets on pre-determined events.
Bust: DraftKings Shuts Wrigley Sportsbook
At the onset of legal sports betting, sportsbooks physically tied to stadiums and arenas seemed like a cool idea. Books, after all, offer a fantastic environment, as anyone who’s visited Las Vegas can attest. But the concept isn’t working. Fans, evidently, prefer watching the game live and placing bets on their phones. DraftKings blames the steep tax burden it faces in Illinois, a legitimate gripe, but in reality, the Wrigley Field-adjacent sportsbook sat mostly empty. The property becomes the latest casualty in a long list of closures of similar brick-and-mortar bet shops, including those linked to the facilities of the Phoenix Suns, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Guardians, and Washington Nationals.
Bust: Plagiarism Spotted on Sports Illustrated
A Sportico report co-bylined by the stellar gambling writer Dan Bernstein and Lev Akabas revealed that Kalshi users have lost more than $100 million betting parlays this year. Two days later, a Sports Illustrated writer named Parker Loverich reported the exact same information. “The husk of the Sports Illustrated brand is stealing entire stories from people without credit, seemingly using AI,” Bernstein posted on X, and Futurism reported Loverich’s stories and author page were deleted from SI, as were his social media accounts. In a statement to Awful Announcing, SI says Loverich is indeed a real person, “an independent publisher who is expected to abide by Sports Illustrated’s editorial guidelines,” and AI was not used. Still, not a good look for the iconic sports media brand.
Bingo: Circa Juices Contest Pools to Record Levels
Already of the highest acclaim, Circa Sports announced it is raising the guaranteed combined prize pool of its three NFL pick ‘em contests – Circa Survivor, Circa Million VIII and Circa Grandissimo – to $30 million, “the largest in contest and world history.” Circa doesn’t take a rake from these contests, and the size of those jackpots only increases if entry fees exceed the guarantee. Now, you just need to go 20-0 this season to turn your $1,000 Survivor entry into $20 million!
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