Despite pushback from the NCAA, prediction market Kalshi has come away from March Madness a winner with trading reaching over $800 million in the first weekend of the tournament.
This figure nearly doubled the amount traded on all three weeks of last year’s competition, according to Bloomberg. In the first two rounds alone last year, Kalshi customers traded $208 million on March Madness-related contracts.
On top of that, Kalshi also announced its Billion Dollar Bracket, which awards a US$1 billion prize for a perfect bracket, with US$1 million for the leading entry if no participant correctly picks all 63 games.
Looking at data from Dune Analytics, Kalshi’s total handle last week topped $3.4 billion, with $1.6 billion of that being generated from basketball-related contracts.
