Over a billion dollars were wagered through Kalshi during the Super Bowl

More than $1 billion was wagered through Kalshi during the Super Bowl, its chief executive said Tuesday, highlighting the platform’s rise amid a booming sports betting market and the growing appeal of prediction markets as competitors to traditional sportsbooks.

Kalshi claims a 2,700% increase from 2025 through its regulated prediction markets, which function more like a financial exchange than a bet against a house.

Bad Bunny’s halftime performance was a major driver of betting, according to Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour, who said on CNBC that more than $100 million was wagered on which song he would perform first.

Many users placed their bets in advance, with more than $325 million already wagered less than an hour before the game began.

However, the Super Bowl was not without setbacks for Kalshi, as some deposits were delayed “due to the amount of traffic and deposits” the platform was receiving, founder Luana Lopes Lara said on X, adding that the increase in traffic “was greater than our most optimistic forecasts.”