Why prediction markets are going mainstream with Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour

Equity

TechCrunch

Founders, Silicon Valley, Finance, Ipo, Vc, Technology, Business News, Startups, Business, Venture Capital, News, Stock Market, Entrepreneurship, Techcrunch

4.2 • 365 Ratings

🗓️ 9 April 2025

⏱️ 18 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Kalshi is the largest prediction market in America, building a unique trading economy around political, sports, and cultural events. While some states view it as an illegal operation requiring gambling licenses, others—including certain courts and members of the Trump administration—see it as a groundbreaking financial opportunity. On this episode of Equity, Max Zeff sits down with Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour at the latest StrictlyVC event in San Francisco. Mansour shares why he sees Kalshi as a global source of truth. Listen to the full episode to hear more about: How Kalshi is creating a new trading economy around political and cultural events. The regulatory challenges and opportunities that prediction markets face. Mansour’s vision for Kalshi as a global tool for decision-making and transparency. The controversy surrounding Kalshi’s status and its ongoing legal battles. Equity is TechCrunch’s flagship podcast, produced by Theresa Loconsolo, and posts every Wednesday and Friday. Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. For the full episode transcript, for those who prefer reading over listening, check out our full archive of episodes here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode is brought to you by Affinity, the most trusted CRM for private capital.
0:17.6	Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch's flagship podcast about the business of startups.
0:22.4	I'm Rebecca Boulin, and this is the episode where we bring on industry experts to help us explore a trend in the tech world and dive deep.
0:29.0	Today, we're talking to Kalshi's CEO, Tariq Mansour.
0:32.1	Kalshi is the largest prediction market in America, creating an entire trading economy around political, sports, and cultural events.
0:39.0	To some, including several states, it's an illegal effort that requires gambling licenses.
0:43.6	To others, including some courts and members of the Trump administration, it's just a new
0:47.7	financial opportunity.
0:49.1	TechCrunch senior reporter Maxwell Zeph covered all of that and much more about Mansour's
0:53.4	perspective on why he views
0:54.6	Kalshi as a global source of truth during a strictly BC event in San Francisco. Let's take a listen.
1:02.6	Tric, thank you for being here. Yeah, it's exciting. Thanks for having me. So prediction markets,
1:07.7	as Connie said, are a really interesting space right now. I think both on the
1:11.9	information side of things and also on the regulatory side, there's a lot of interesting things going on,
1:17.9	and you're kind of at the center of it. And we're going to get into all of that. But first,
1:21.2	I think it's important to just talk about what are some of the real things that people are
1:26.0	predicting on your market?
1:27.9	I pulled up a few that I pulled last night.
1:30.6	One question that you can answer on Kalshi is recession this year, question mark.
1:35.4	And it's currently a 56% chance.
1:37.6	Yes.
1:38.3	Another one that I liked was Minecraft movie.
	...

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