Prediction market operators are stepping up their presence in California, combining major sports partnerships, aggressive customer acquisition and lobbying activity in a state where conventional sports betting remains unavailable.
Kalshi has signed agreements with three California-based Major League Baseball teams, while DraftKings has launched a targeted campaign promoting its Predictions platform. At the same time, prediction market companies and industry groups are spending more heavily to influence the regulatory debate surrounding event contracts.
The activity makes California an increasingly important battleground for the sector. The state remains one of the largest U.S. markets without regulated sports wagering, creating an opportunity for platforms that offer sports-related event contracts under federal commodities rules.
Kalshi Secures Deals With Three California MLB Teams
Kalshi announced partnerships on August 25 with five MLB clubs: the Atlanta Braves, Boston Red Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants. Three of those teams are based in California.
The agreements cover stadium advertising, digital and social promotion, radio campaigns and fan activations. At Dodger Stadium, Kalshi will receive branding on LED displays and naming rights to the Gold Glove Bar, alongside promotional activity in Centerfield Plaza.
The expansion comes as Kalshi reports sharply rising demand for baseball markets, with baseball-related trading volume increasing 36-fold year over year.
The deals give the company a highly visible presence in California despite the absence of legal traditional sports betting. They also extend a broader prediction-market push into professional baseball, with other operators pursuing partnerships across the sport.
DraftKings Targets States Without Sportsbooks
DraftKings is making a similar move through its Predictions business.
The company has begun running targeted promotions in California, Texas, Florida and Georgia, all major states where its conventional online sportsbook is not available. The California campaign follows the December 2025 launch of DraftKings Predictions and is designed to increase awareness and customer acquisition rather than introduce a new product to the state.
DraftKings has identified prediction markets as a significant growth opportunity. In its second-quarter results, the company said Predictions was expanding faster than initially expected and contributing to customer growth alongside its sportsbook operation.
CEO Jason Robins has also highlighted a distinction between prediction-market users in states with and without regulated online sports betting. In markets such as California and Texas, DraftKings says the customer profile is closer to the recreational audience normally attracted to its sportsbook. In states where sports betting is already legal, a greater share of prediction-market activity comes from professional, institutional and syndicate traders.
That difference gives DraftKings an incentive to market Predictions heavily in states where consumers have long been exposed to its national brand but have been unable to access its sportsbook.
Political Spending Grows Alongside Commercial Expansion
The push is not limited to advertising and sports partnerships.
The Coalition for Prediction Markets spent $50,000 on California lobbying between April and July through Redwood Public Affairs, according to lobbying disclosures cited by Gambling Insider. Its members include Kalshi, Crypto.com, Coinbase, Robinhood and Underdog. Kalshi separately spent about $60,000 on lobbying in the state and contributed more than $100,000 to California election committees.
California has so far avoided the direct enforcement confrontations seen in several other states, but Attorney General Rob Bonta has made clear that his office supports state authority over sports wagering.
In June, Bonta joined 36 other attorneys general in a legal brief backing Ohio in its dispute with Kalshi. California’s Department of Justice said it was the seventh time the state had participated in multistate legal action concerning Kalshi or similar prediction-market operators.
The central dispute is whether sports event contracts offered by federally regulated exchanges fall exclusively under Commodity Futures Trading Commission oversight or may also be restricted under state gambling laws.
California’s position in those cases means the rapid commercial expansion of prediction markets is taking place against an unresolved regulatory backdrop.
For Kalshi, DraftKings and their competitors, however, the attraction is clear: California offers access to a huge population of sports fans without an established legal sportsbook market. The latest MLB partnerships, advertising campaigns and lobbying expenditure show operators are now competing for both customers and political influence as that legal battle develops.