Milwaukee Bucks starter and Kalshi backer Kyle Kuzma has aimed at mobile sports betting giant DraftKings for capping winning bettor limits and promoting risky parlays with exceptionally high holds, driving many frustrated enthusiasts to hunt for better lines at trusted offshore betting sites.
Kuzma Crowns DraftKings
Milwaukee Bucks forward Kyle Kuzma has thrown the gauntlet down against one of the leaders in the mobile sports betting arena, Boston-based DraftKings. Kuzma, along with fellow NBA stars Giannis Antetokounmpo and Kevin Durant, purchased shares of prediction market platform, Kalshi, through a group called Factory Holdings.
Kuzma has been an outspoken advocate of Kalshi and recently voiced his opinion on mobile sportsbooks in response to criticism from DraftKings founder Matt Kalish about the prediction platforms. Kalish pointed out that average men and women are betting against professional Wall Street types, unlike those who use mobile sportsbooks restricted by local betting laws, which pit bettors against the house instead of each other.
The war of words began with Kalish stating, “97% of people, the normal people who are responding to their marketing, pull up and think I see the number on the site, I click bet, and I get the bet that you’re saying. These are the people getting decimated by market makers. Wall Street. Susquehanna. The big Wall Street trading firms. Professionals are putting millions of dollars into using APIs and algorithms to milk them as fast as possible.”
“I’m not saying these things shouldn’t exist. What I’m saying is you can’t market things one way, like, oh, this is some nice site where Main Street has an advantage over Wall Street. Like Tarek (Mansour – Kalshi founder) posted. Every single person who’s the 99% of normal users is getting their ass handed to them and losing at a 90% plus rate.”
Kuzma responded via X, writing, “Love Matt but…DK’s own hold on parlays runs like 25-40%. They limit or ban anyone who shows skill (which literally is the best part of prediction markets), then funnel casuals into boosted props engineered to lose. Wall Street market makers are tough ofc but at least they don’t kick you off the platform for winning.”
Rift Widens
It is no secret that there is growing animosity between prediction markets offering sports event contracts and mobile sportsbooks. The two products are often difficult to differentiate, but the prediction markets operate with relative impunity across all 50 states and do not pay taxes to those state and local governments.
Kalshi and Polymarket are two of the leading prediction markets offering sports event contracts, and they are federally regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The state regulators have waged a legal battle, stating that the CFTC’s federal authority should not allow their licensees to skirt state gaming rules established to protect the consumer and avoid paying taxes.
Conflicting rulings at the federal, state, and appellate levels have caused confusion and chaos, leading many to agree that this issue will ultimately be heard and decided by the US Supreme Court. Until then, the prediction markets will continue to operate unfettered throughout the nation with the blessing of the CFTC, making it all the more important for participants to exercise responsible betting habits.
