The youth vote
Is Kalshi winning by racking up the under-21s?
College betting data suggests Kalshi over-indexes on the 18-21 demo.
Sugar rush: High Roller value quadruples on Crypto.com predictions news.
In +More: Midnite raises $35m Series C round from Raine.
E+M PRO: Earnings previews for Red Rock Resorts and Wynn Resorts.
Hard Rock Bet is growing – we know you know! And we want to bring in some more maestros to make beautiful music in our Sportsbook. You need to be among the very best in the industry to be considered for these roles. Are you up to it?
School daze
The youth are starting to change: Kalshi’s outsized college ball betting indicates the company has built up a solid user base among 18-21 year olds, who often can’t bet even in regulated OSB states, according to analysis of trading patterns.
Data from HoldCrunch on ‘OSB equivalent handle’ figures from Kalshi showed college football hit its highest percentage of 32% for the week ending January 4.
This was higher than the 24% for the NFL and the 22% achieved by the NBA.
In a couple of years tides have turned from boos to cheers: Speaking to E+M, HoldCrunch founder Tom Johnson pointed out that both Kalshi and rival Polymarket “heavily skew” towards college sports.
He noted that with OSB, handle on NFL straight bets is 4x the amount of college football whereas with Kalshi the figure is only 1.2x.
“This makes sense given most OSB states are 21+. HoldCrunch expects college basketball to show similar spikes in Kalshi and Polymarket handle,” Johnson said.
Weekend wars: Looking at the same data trends, the team at Jefferies this week said, given the age restriction of 21+ in most OSB states, it was obviously the case that those aged 18-20 would “only be able to bet through Kalshi” even if they are residents of OSB states.
To illustrate the argument, the Jefferies team pointed to comparisons between OSB and prediction markets over football weekend.
Whereas OSB operators see “far greater player activity” on NFL Sundays, Kalshi data appears to show a more even split between Sundays and College Saturdays.
“Those aged 18-20 are more likely to be at college and/or interested in college sports,” Jefferies said.
“Outside of college, however, the NFL is much more meaningful for OSB than college football, generating 4x the level of handle.”
Cock-a-hoop: In the short-term, the data suggested Kalshi is set to enjoy a bonanza of player activity in March with the men’s NCAA tournament, when Holdcrunch expects to see a similar spike as with college football.
But implications for further out are harder to assess. Prediction markets sports volumes and handle “should always be assessed in the context of this college/audience lens,” said Johnson.
“Questions regarding growth, churn, cannibalization should be asked with this data in mind,” he added.
Awks: Adding further complexity came the news yesterday that federal prosecutors have charged 26 people in what they called an international betting conspiracy to rig games in the NCAA and China’s Basketball Association.
Authorities said “fixers” recruited athletes with cash bribes, typically $10,000-$30,000 per game, to deliberately underperform, then wagered against their teams.
The indictment alleges the scheme targeted games from 2023 through January 2025, touching 17 NCAA teams and 29 games.
See next Tuesday’s Compliance+More.
FanDuel Predicts expansion
On the rise: FanDuel has expanded the number of states where its prediction markets offering is available by 13, making it 18 in total. Among the new states are California, Florida and Texas. FanDuel Predicts originally launched with a limited slate of states in December.
Hi-fi hires
Hedge hunters: Trading firms are moving quickly into prediction markets, hiring specialist traders to exploit short-lived pricing gaps across platforms such as Polymarket and Kalshi, as the sector professionalizes.
According to the Financial Times, Don Wilson’s DRW is building a “dedicated prediction markets desk” and is recruiting a trader with a base salary of up to $200,000 to monitor and trade markets in real time.
Options market heavyweight Susquehanna is also hiring traders, as is crypto hedge fund Tyr Capital.
Analysts said the funds are likely to focus on arbitrage between similar outcomes priced differently across still-siloed venues, mirroring high-frequency trading strategies in equities.
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High Roller high
I’m forever blowing bubbles: High Roller Technologies saw its share price soar by tenfold during trading on Wednesday before settling back to a 430%+ surge on the news that it is to pursue a prediction market offering in conjunction with Crypto.com.
They fly so high: Starting the day at $3.52, the share price ballooned in value on the announcement, hitting over $32 mid-trading day before settling at a price of $18.89.
Nearly reach the sky: The price movement sent the value of the company up to over $160m. On a year view, High Roller is now over 180% above its float level.
Fortune’s always hiding: High Roller reaches an all-time high
Rocket from the crypto: The share price reaction followed in the wake of the announcement that High Roller had entered into a binding letter of intent with Crypto.com and its Derivatives North America arm, which will power a new predictions offering.
The derivatives business is a CFTC-registered exchange and clearinghouse, and affiliate of Crypto.com.
High Roller said the new offering would trade event contracts across sports, finance and entertainment, and is targeting a launch in Q1.
To support the launch, High Roller has also signed a non-binding LOI with Lines.com, owned by major shareholder Spike Up Media.
+More
Midnite has raised $35m in a Series C round led by Raine and with participation from existing investors, including Play Ventures, Discerning Capital, Makers Fund and Big Bets, taking total equity funding to $75m+. The UK sportsbook and casino operator will use proceeds to scale operations, accelerate product development and support international expansion, while continuing to build its in-house technology stack and UK-based engineering teams.
Earnings in brief
GiG Software said revenue in Q4 rose 8% to €9.5m with adj. EBITDA significantly improved to €1.5m from €0.1m in the prior-year period. This helped push FY25 revenue to at least €37.5m, up 18%, with adj. EBITDA for the year showing a positive €4.1m vs. a loss of €3m in 2024. However, a launch delay on the part of its first partner in Brazil means the company has trimmed FY26 guidance to revenue of €44m-€48m vs. €56m-€60m previously and adj. EBITDA to €10m-€13m vs. at least €15m.
A Betr idea: Having missed out in the battle for PointsBet, Betr Entertainment said this week it would embark upon a share buyback scheme to purchase up to 10% of the company’s shares. The news came with a brief trading update that said turnover had risen 24% YoY in Q226 to $444m. The company said it was pursuing acquisitions in Australia and remained in active discussions with a number of potential targets.
Deal talk
Software group Target Aid has agreed to acquire Swedish lotto and betting provider Polar Group Technologies for an undisclosed sum. The deal brings Polar’s licensed gaming operations into Target Aid’s portfolio and is intended to create a new combined parent company called ImpactWin, initially focused on Sweden.
Read across
Dugher off: Michael Dugher, the chair of the Betting & Gaming Council, appears to have paid the price for a disastrous lobbying effort running up to last November’s UK Budget, which left the sector facing eye-watering tax rates on iCasino. See yesterday’s Compliance+More.
The Maine event: The decision by Governor Janet Mills to allow LD 1164 to become law caught much of the market off guard. But according to those closest to the process, it was neither accidental nor impulsive. See Tuesday’s Compliance+More.
+More careers
The big move: Wynn Resorts has announced that CFO Julie Cameron-Doe will retire in mid-2026, with current CFO at Wynn Macau, Craig Jeffrey Fullalove, appointed as her successor. Cameron-Doe, who has held the role since April 2022, will remain involved with the group as a consultant and as a non-executive director of Wynn Macau. CEO Craig Billings credited Cameron-Doe with overseeing key strategic initiatives during her tenure, including the acquisition and integration of Wynn Mayfair in London and securing construction financing for the Wynn Al Marjan Island development in the UAE.
Flutter Entertainment has appointed David Kenny as a director to its board. Octoplay has appointed Ralitsa Georgieva as CEO. She replaces Carl Ejertsson who held the role for the past three years. Allwyn has appointed Bridget Lea as MD of a newly created retail team. Soft2Bet has appointed Andrew Cochrane as CCO. Cochrane recently left GiG Software.
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E+M PRO – Earnings Previews
Red Rock Resorts
Building a case: Red Rock Resorts has an aspect of perpetual movement about its current status, with the company at the start of the year embarking on expansion work on its highly successful and still effectively new Durango property.
See yesterday’s Earnings Extra edition (PRO subs only).
Wynn Resorts
From dreams into reality: Wynn goes into Q4 with momentum, but also with a to-do list of projects and strategic questions that management will likely address in detail. The tone from recent commentary has been one of confidence, particularly around pricing power, Macau execution and the long tail from Al Marjan.
See this morning’s Earnings Extra edition (PRO subs only).
Preview calendar
Jan 19: DraftKings
Jan 20: Flutter
Jan 21: BetMGM
Connections
The big deal: Stats Perform has been appointed FIFA’s first-ever official worldwide betting data and betting streaming rights distributor under a new multi-year agreement, securing exclusive rights that include the expanded FIFA World Cup 2026 and FIFA Women’s World Cup Brazil 2027.
Stats Perform’s RunningBall unit will collect and distribute ultrafast official betting data for use in modeling, trading, settlement and in-play products.
Opta will supply official player stats, live scores, insights and match trackers to licensed sportsbooks.
The deal also covers live betting video streams in selected territories via Stats Perform’s AI-enhanced Bet LiveStreams service.
Stats Perform’s Integrity team will also support FIFA’s integrity unit for covered content.
Catalist Sports will be the exclusive rights holder for tennis data for the Australian Open, which began this week. Catalist will be the only provider authorized to distribute official Australian Open data to licensed sportsbooks in the US. Fanatics and OBB Media have partnered to launch a new JV called Fanatics Studios, aimed at creating content in sports entertainment.
Does your Bet Builder supplier or in-house Same Game Multi solution support 12 sports, including all of the main global betting sports, plus local variants and even eSports? Does your product allow your end-users to place both Pre-Match and In:Play Bet Builders across multiple sports? Can you offer cashout across all Bet Builder transactions? Does your solution use your own odds rather than another opinion of the market? If the answer to any of these is ‘no’ then come and find out why over 200 operators are using the Algosport Bet Builder solution today.
Upcoming earnings
Jan 22: IG Group
Jan 27: Evoke
Jan 28: Las Vegas Sands
Jan 29: Rank
Feb 5: Evolution, Betsson, Boyd Gaming
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