DraftKings Predictions tops $1.3bn as Kalish wages war on Kalshi
- DraftKings Predictions recorded $1.3bn in annualized consumer volume in May 2026, a 24% month-over-month increase.
- Total annualized volume traded reached $3.1bn, up 34% from April, as an upgraded app experience went live ahead of the NBA Finals and World Cup.
- Former DraftKings president Matt Kalish, who left his executive role in March, has launched a public campaign against rival Kalshi, even as DraftKings exploits the same regulatory gap he is attacking.
DraftKings Predictions has posted its strongest monthly trading figures to date, with annualized consumer volume reaching $1.3bn in May 2026, a 24% jump from April, as the company rolls out an upgraded app timed to the NBA Finals and the FIFA World Cup.
Annualized total volume traded climbed to $3.1bn, up 34% month-over-month, according to figures the company shared on June 9.
The gains followed the integration of DraftKings Predictions into its flagship DraftKings Sports & Casino super app, which the company says has significantly reduced friction for new users.
The May numbers build on momentum already visible in April, when annualized consumer volume on DraftKings Predictions exceeded $1bn and total annualized trading volume reached $2.3bn, representing monthly gains of 38% and 43% respectively over March.
App upgrade drives volume
Jason Robins, CEO and co-founder of DraftKings, cited the redesigned app experience as a core driver of growth. During its Q1 earnings call in May, the company reported that predictions customer acquisition cost declined more than 80% following the super app integration.
DraftKings also said during the same call that it had more than doubled the number of available markets, pushing predictions volume per customer above sportsbook handle per customer for the first time.
DraftKings timed the upgrade ahead of two major sports events: the ongoing NBA Finals, where the New York Knicks lead the San Antonio Spurs 2-1, and the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which will kick off in 2 days on 11 June.
On LinkedIn following Game 1 of the NBA Finals, Robins wrote:
“Game 1 of the NBA Finals delivered the largest active customer day ever for DraftKings Predictions. Bigger than the Super Bowl. With our unified platform, we’re bringing the DraftKings sports experience to more fans than ever before.
“Whether fans were trading sports event contracts in Texas, betting in New York, or engaging with the game anywhere in between, they were participating in the same sports moment nationwide.”
He closed the post:
“I don’t know if the Spurs or the Knicks will win this NBA championship. But I know who’s going to win in prediction markets.”
Kalish targets Kalshi
The volume update arrives alongside a sustained public offensive from Matt Kalish, who stepped down as DraftKings president on March 31 but retained a board seat. Now operating outside the company, he has used X to mount a pointed attack on rival Kalshi‘s sports prediction markets across a series of posts in May and June 2026.
Kalish has described Kalshi as a niche product that lags mainstream US sportsbooks significantly in product quality and consumer appeal. He argues that many retail users do not understand who sits on the other side of their trades. Kalish contended that participants are often trading against institutional market makers, including professional Wall Street firms.
In one post, he described the people pushing back on him in his replies as pro gamblers, Wall Street traders and exchange staff, characterising them as the counterparties who profit when retail users lose.
Kalish said the campaign was triggered by a personal experience: a PGA Championship bet he placed on Kalshi was, in his account, filled at terms materially worse than fair value. He described the experience as having “pissed him off” and framed his public response as a deliberate escalation.
In the most direct of his posts, he named Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour, enforcement head Robert J. DeNault and co-founder Luana Lopes Lara as the executives responsible for the platform’s current approach to sports markets.
The tension in Kalish’s position is hard to ignore. His core regulatory argument, that sports event contracts are sports bets in economic substance and should face state-level consumer-protection rules rather than CFTC oversight alone, runs directly against how DraftKings is using its own predictions product.
The company built DraftKings Predictions specifically to access states like California and Texas, where online sports betting is not yet legal, exploiting the same federal regulatory gap he is publicly attacking.
Kalish has said his critique targets Kalshi’s implementation rather than prediction markets as a category, but the distinction is difficult to sustain when DraftKings is building a functionally similar product on the same regulatory foundation.
Super app, market making push
DraftKings has indicated it plans to invest between $200m and $300m in its predictions business in 2026. On its Q1 earnings call, the company confirmed it had launched market-making operations, with Robins saying the activity was already generating a positive return.
The company also plans to launch its proprietary Railbird exchange in the coming weeks, alongside a parlay-style combos product.
DraftKings said its combined sports business could reach more than 95% of the US population by the end of 2026, citing Eilers & Krejcik data showing that nearly 70% of sports prediction market consumer volume comes from states without legal sportsbook access.
Kalshi, by comparison, commanded a 62% share of the broader prediction market space as of April, with approximately 72% of that volume from sports-event contracts, according to Bernstein data.
FanDuel parent Flutter Entertainment is pursuing a parallel strategy, with both companies preparing heavier prediction market spending in the second half of 2026, targeting the World Cup and NFL season as the next major volume catalysts.
Kalish’s X campaign is as much a regulatory play as a product argument. He is feeding the narrative that state regulators and tribal gaming interests have been pushing: that Kalshi’s sports contracts are sportsbook products dressed up as derivatives.
The irony is that DraftKings stands to benefit from regulatory pressure on Kalshi, even as the company runs the same playbook itself.
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About the author
Bianca Máthe
Bianca Mathe joined the iGaming industry in 2018 and has since built extensive experience across multiple verticals, working with international gaming organizations on editorial, marketing, and media strategy. She brings a strong understanding of the regulatory, commercial, and technological forces shaping the global iGaming sector.
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