On Wednesday afternoon, two big block trades were made on Kalshi, each buying 125,000 YES contracts on the Cincinnati Bearcats to qualify for the 2027 NCAA men’s basketball tournament at 74 cents apiece. The trades were first noted in a report from market surveillance firm BETINT.
Each trade cost $92,500, for a combined $185,000. If Cincinnati makes the field when it’s announced in March, the YES side will collect $250,000. If not, the counterparty keeps the $65,000 posted for the NO side.
The trades came 19 minutes apart, at 2:44 p.m. and 3:03 p.m. ET. Both opened new positions, pushing open interest in the Cincinnati contract to 250,065.
That’s a big position for a market that barely traded until Wednesday. Kalshi opened its “Round of 76 Qualifiers” market on Sept. 22, months after the NCAA approved expanding the men’s and women’s tournaments to 76 teams, up from the 68-team format used since 2011.
