The Gaming Intelligence Hot 50 exists to recognise people who have had a significant impact on the industry and there is no denying that Kalshi co-founders Luana Lopes Lara and Tarek Mansour have done just that. No company has disrupted the sports betting industry in the way that Kalshi has in such a short space of time.
With legal battles playing out across the United States, it remains to be seen how Kalshi’s sports event contracts fit into the betting ecosystem, but their impact will continue to shape the industry for years to come. Many have already followed Kalshi’s lead, including dominant sportsbook operators like FanDuel and DraftKings. Even President Trump has got in on the action and you get the feeling that this just the beginning of the story.
Luana and Tarek founded Kalshi in 2018 and secured CFTC approval for their business in 2020. Their vision was to simplify financial trading by enabling people to directly trade on the probability of future events, instead of indirectly through derivative instruments. Then they realised that this could be applied to almost any future event.
Five years after gaining CFTC approval, Kalshi is valued at over $11 billion, making its co-founders both billionaires. They may not have meant to enter the sports betting industry but that unanticipated move has made ‘prediction markets’ a household term.
Betting is as old as human history and Tarek and Luana just turned the industry on its head.