Kalshi

What is the "Matched Betting Value" listed above? This is the amount of profit that you can make from the sign-up offer through a technique called matched betting. In short, it is a mathematical approach to sports betting that guarantees profit by hedging your bets. This allows you to cover all possible outcomes and secure a profit no matter what happens in the game. This is different from gambling because there is no risk of losing. Learn more in our What Is Matched Betting guide.

Kalshi is the first CFTC-regulated prediction market in the US. Prediction markets allow users to trade on the outcomes of sporting events and other real-world events. Examples include who will win an election, a new movie's Rotten Tomatoes score, and even the weather.

Since Kalshi is a CFTC-regulated prediction market, there are a few ways it differs from a traditional sportsbook.

Tax Implications

Kalshi is regulated by the CFTC, so profits and losses are treated like investments. You’ll likely get a 1099 reflecting all your trades, or at least your net profit and loss.

Sportsbooks, on the other hand, fall under gambling rules. Winnings are reported as “other income,” and losses are only deductible if you itemize. Under certain circumstances, you may receive a W2-G from sports betting, but most likely, you will need to self-report.

CFTC-regulated markets and gambling fall under two different tax structures and may not easily, if at all, offset each other.

Example: You bet $1,000 at +110 on both sides of an event, one on Kalshi, one on a traditional sportsbook. Because you hedged, you are going to profit $100 no matter which side wins. However, in reality, on one side you have a $1,100 win and on the other a $1,000 loss.  

Disclaimer: Our goal is to inform, not give tax advice.  Check with a tax professional for your situation.

User Settings

In your user settings, you can change the displayed odds to

• Payout and odds
• Shares and prices
• American odds

When set to American odds, the displayed odds will reflect the fee Kalshi charges. Even when set to American odds, once you select a trade, the odds format changes to contract pricing.

When set to "Payout and Odds" or "Shares and Prices" the fee is not reflected.

DarkHorse Odds handles all the fees and calculations for you. The Bet Finders will present you with the correct dollar amount to purchase the proper number of contracts, including the fee. You do not need to worry about doing the math; just know that when trading in dollars on Kalshi, they will round the bet amount down by up to $0.99, and that DarkHorse Odds accounts for this and the fee.

Contract Pricing and Trading Fees

Kalshi uses contracts as the basis for all its markets. Each contract is worth $1 if the prediction is correct. When placing a trade, you have multiple options. You can buy or sell in:

• Dollars
• Contracts
• Limit Order

Buying in Dollars

When buying in dollars, you type in your desired amount. Kalshi then determines how many contracts you can buy based on your trade amount, the contract price, and the associated fee. Since you can only buy whole contracts, your trade amount is then rounded down. In the example below, we demonstrate how, when placing a $10 trade on Pittsburgh to win, Kalshi adjusts it to a $9.42 trade for 13 contracts, inclusive of a $0.19 fee.

Notice the following:

1. Trading in Dollars
2. Trade amount is $10
3. Buying 13 contracts at 71 cents each

‍

After clicking "Review", you are presented with the following:

Notice the following:

1. Your trade amount was automatically lowered to $9.42
2. A fee of $0.19 is included in the trade price of $9.42

Buying in Contracts

When buying in contracts, you can only purchase whole contracts.

Notice the following:

1. Trading in contracts
2. Buying 13 contracts
3. Average price is 72.44 cents
4. Trade amount is $9.42
5. The fee of $0.19 is included

‍

When buying in contracts, Kalshi clearly shows you how the fee impacts the average contract price. In this example, the $0.19 fee brings the average contract price to 72.44 cents from the initial price of 71 cents.

Limit Orders

Limit orders serve two primary purposes.

1. They let you request an exact price. This prevents situations where the price changes just before you place a regular buy order, leaving you with a worse price than expected.
2. They allow you to request better odds than what are currently available. Sticking to the same example of the Pittsburgh at Cincinnati game, you can request to buy contracts for Pittsburgh to win at 70 cents instead of the currently offered price of 71 cents.

Notice the following:

1. Limit Order
2. Buying 13 contracts
3. Requested price is 70 cents
4. You can set when your request will expire
5. Trade amount is $9.15
6. The fee of $0.05 is included

‍

Limit orders can reduce risk. The most common way to do this is to request a limit order and set the expiration to "IOC" (immediate or cancel). If the order does not go through immediately, because the price or available liquidity has changed, then it is canceled. This prevents you from getting a different bet than you expected.

Limit orders, where you are requesting a better price, therefore, there is no liquidity available, may come with additional risk. If the current price is 71 cents and you request 70 cents, it may sit unmatched, and you have no way of knowing if it will ever match or how much of it will match. This can increase your risk because between the time you requested the limit order and the event starts, new information, such as an injury, may come out.  A key injury might change the price drastically, leaving your limit order as a bad trade based on the new information.

Trading Fees

Below is a table of how many contracts you can buy for $100 at various prices. This table also displays the associated fee, equivalent American Odds, and the fee as a percentage of your total purchase price.

_{{{kalshifees="/components"}}}

‍

Notice the following:

1. Your total cost does not go above the initial trade amount of $100
2. Your total spend is always within $1 of your original trade amount
3. The fee decreases as the contract price increases

‍

Kalshi charges a variable fee on each contract, ranging from 6.49% to 0.07% depending on the contract price. That might sound like a wide range, but you don’t need to worry about it. We automatically account for Kalshi’s exact fee in every calculation.

In Browse Odds and Browse Odds Table, clicking on a cell shows all the fee details.

In our Bet Finders, we calculate the fee into the pricing and adjust the bet amounts to ensure it is properly accounted for.

In short, if Kalshi has the best price listed on DarkHorse Odds, then they have the best price, because we’ve already done the math for you.

Each sportsbook has its own House Rules which determine how a bet is graded. These rules cover unlikely events, such as what happens to your bet when a game is canceled.

Usually, the different house rules across sportsbooks do not have an impact on matched betting. However, in Major League Baseball (MLB), there are notable exceptions. A simple example is when a game is postponed due to weather. Read our House Rules Comparison guide to learn more.

For MLB it is also important to understand what defines Action.