The U.S. sports betting world moves quickly and unpredictably in 2026. In order to properly take stock of it all, we offer InGame’s “EndGame,” an end-of-week compilation of the top storylines, some overlooked items, and all the other news bits from this past week that we found interesting.
Kalshi hedging political bets
When it comes to betting on political outcomes, Kalshi’s executives know how to play it safe.
The NOTUS digital website reported Tuesday that company co-founders Tarek Mansour and Luana Lopes Lara have invested heavily in the re-election campaigns of both Republican and Democratic members of Congress, which is not coincidentally weighing whether to involve itself in prediction market legislation.
NOTUS analyzed federal campaign finance records and found that since June 2025 Mansour has contributed $330,300 to Republican congressional campaigns and the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), while doling out $251,100 similarly to Democratic counterparts. The article said Lopes Lara has contributed $350,000 to the NRSC and Republican National Committee, while giving $7,000 each to multiple Democratic members of Congress.
A Kalshi spokesperson told NOTUS, “Like many leaders at U.S. regulated companies, ours support candidates on both sides of the aisle.”
With control of both the House and Senate deemed in play for November’s mid-term elections, it seems all the more important for prediction market operators like Kalshi to hedge their bets. The article noted, meanwhile, “As a company, Kalshi directly encourages its users to bet in politics — from political speeches to election outcomes, and it even provides its own estimates of political power based on its users’ bets.”
Key investor sees bounce for sportsbooks
Michael Burry may not be a household name, but those in financial circles might take particular interest in his new investments in Flutter and DraftKings rather than in prediction markets.
Burry’s fame comes from The Big Short, as an investor who correctly predicted the U.S. housing crash of 2008. CNBC noted Wednesday that looking into the future he sees a rosier picture for the major sportsbook operators than for Kalshi and its peers. The article cited Burry’s own report that he had purchased a full-sized position split of roughly 60% in Flutter, at $107 a share, and 40% in DraftKings, in the low-$26 range. He anticipates regulators will eventually crack down on prediction markets, meaning the sportsbook operators are presently undervalued after their stock prices slid due to the new competition.
“I believe that the political climate will not tolerate this,” Burry said in a Substack post. “Prediction markets exist in a loophole adjacent to a heavily regulated and taxed industry. In time, prediction markets will be subsumed into regulation and taxation.”
Meanwhile, the sportsbook operators in which he is investing are hedging bets themselves by recently launching their own prediction market initiatives.
NJ expected to try again on PM tax
New Jersey legislators failed to get a bill that would tax prediction markets off the floor this spring, but — to use the parlance of our times — may be about 97-cent favorites to try again. The bill, which cleared the budget committees in both chambers before failing on the floor, will come back, according to a New Jersey Monitor report.
“We’re planning on looking at that over the summer and into the fall,” Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin told the Monitor. “I think there’s every chance we’ll pass something out. We’ll make sure it’s right.”
The bill would slap a 9% surtax on the net income of prediction markets operating in the state. North Carolina this month enacted a 6% tax on prediction market revenue, although it remains to be seen whether states are able to collect such levies from the federally regulated sector.
The New Jersey bill appeared to be sailing through the legislature ahead of lawmakers’ traditional summer break before hitting a speed bump, amid concerns the bill’s language was too broad. “There was some notion that we might be affecting other things, like the stock market or something like that. Clearly that was never the intent,” Coughlin said.
The New Jersey legislature, barring an emergency, reconvenes post-Labor Day.
— Jeff Edelstein
Odds and ends (all somehow tied to Philly)
- MLB’s All-Star Game festivities include the annual Home Run Derby Monday night at Citizens Bank Park, and theScore Bet senses a nice marketing opportunity. Penn Entertainment’s sports betting site has an advertising sign in right field, and every time a Home Run Derby participant hits the sign Monday, another $10,000 will be added into a bonus bet pool to be doled out at the event’s conclusion to bettors on theScore Bet’s Home Run Derby markets. The bonus pool can reach as high as $100,000.
- One of the Home Run Derby participants will be Phillies star Bryce Harper, a past winner of the event, but he was in the news for less celebrated reasons this week. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that a lawsuit by a losing FanDuel VIP bettor claimed that FanDuel had helped fuel his addiction by using a personalized Harper video to thank him for using the sportsbook. There was no indication that Harper knew of the gambling problem connected to litigant Terry Thompson, who said he wagered $18.5 million with FanDuel.
- Nigel Eccles, the co-founder and former CEO of FanDuel, was inducted this week into the Fantasy Sports Hall of Fame at the Fantasy Sports & Gaming Association’s annual summer conference in Philadelphia. In making Eccles its 27th inductee, the association noted his impact in influencing the evolution of the regulated online gaming industry, including daily fantasy sports. Now CEO of Sentient Studios, Eccles left FanDuel in 2017.
- Spectrum Gaming Group, a firm based in suburban Philadelphia that is among the national leaders in analyzing the gaming industry, has named former FBI special agent Dean J. DiPietro as its senior advisor-investigations. The company said he will work alongside Spectrum’s investigative teams worldwide on issues related to financial crime risk, regulatory compliance, integrity, and more.
ICYMI
Mulvaney: Don’t Assume Trump Supports Sports Event Contracts
New York Can Ban Kalshi Sports Contracts, Court Rules
Michigan Court Lets Kalshi Delay Geofencing, Use Address-Based Blocking For Now
Susquehanna Seeks Out World Cup Hedging Trades With $500 Million War Chest
Kalshi Takers Lose Record $32 Million, Mostly To Market Makers, On Mexico-England World Cup Game
California Tribal Leaders Still Aiming For OSB Initiative In 2028
North Carolina Governor Signs New Predictions Tax, OSB Hike Into Law
Meet Them Where They Are: FanDuel’s Alberta Road Trip
Arnold Ventures Spending $2.6 Million To Study Sports Betting
