00:00Emily let me start with you because Kaoshi has been raising money and it now has secured a 22 billion
00:06dollar valuation which is quite a lot larger than what it was just five months ago.
00:12Yeah it's it's almost double what it was even just in the end of last year when it was about
00:1711 billion and it's more than its rival as well.
00:20Polymarket we had briefly heard was chasing a number around that mark but I think the most latest reports that
00:25we have put it at about 15 billion is what it's looking for now.
00:28So it definitely makes Kaoshi the largest player but it's also the largest regulated prediction market in the U.S.
00:33Polymarket of course much of its volume is on the offshore international platform that it has while its U.S.
00:38app is rather small at the moment.
00:40So Chris come on in here what does it mean for a traditional quote-unquote traditional sports books.
00:44I'm talking about DraftKings I'm talking about FanDuel because they've been locked in this battle trying to maintain market share
00:50of their core businesses.
00:52Well simultaneously as you write trying to fend off a new threat from these prediction markets.
00:57Right and those stocks have all taken a hit in the past year and just to put it in perspective
01:02Kaoshi's $22 billion market value is bigger than DraftKings, bigger than Flutter which is the parent company of FanDuel.
01:09So there you know it's funny as somebody who's covered this for a while to go back eight nine years
01:15ago DraftKings and FanDuel where the kind of new kids on the block had this sort of quasi legal product
01:20daily fantasy that was sweeping the country and they were raising tons of money spending like you know as much
01:26as they possibly could on marketing and all that.
01:28And you know they became the two major major players in online sports betting in the U.S.
01:33Now they're you know they're what's what they did is being done to them by the prediction market folks.
01:39They both launched products are spending 200 300 million this year each of them on prediction market products but right
01:46now don't have a lot of traction.
01:48Right now don't have a lot of traction.
01:51What are what do we know in terms of how much prediction markets are contributing to their revenue line to
01:56their bottom line if they're even willing to go that far and share that kind of granular detail right now.
02:01They didn't on the latest calls and it's it is right it's minimal at this point.
02:06Hey Emily come on in here because Kaoshi made a big hire today.
02:10Actually somebody for policy coming from the working under Paul Atkins who's now over at the SEC.
02:19It seems like Kaoshi is really beefing up its presence in Washington.
02:22There was another big hire of late a couple weeks ago.
02:25We actually spoke to Kaoshi's head of enforcement on our program Bloomberg Crypto.
02:31Is the is the company successfully navigating a tricky regulatory environment.
02:38I mean successfully is a term I guess that's a matter for an opinion columnist but at least in terms
02:44of what we're seeing in in terms of its hiring in D.C.
02:47It's definitely beefing up. There's also a major regulatory group that's been set up in D.C.
02:51The coalition that's over there protecting prediction markets.
02:54Kaoshi is a major part of that.
02:56It's definitely a major lobbying effort that's going on over there right now because as we know Kaoshi is being
03:01sued and it's also suing a bunch of states all across the U.S.
03:05that are disputing its right to offer predictions in their states particularly around sports bets.
03:09That's a big area of contention and lawmakers are incredibly interested in the power of prediction markets.
03:13We've been seeing headlines about insider trading on these platforms some of which is being cracked down on some of
03:18which seems to also still be going under the radar.
03:20So it's definitely an area that Kaoshi and other companies are keen to beef up on make sure they're talking
03:26to the right people
03:27and also make sure their interests are being heard where they're facing their own legal issues.
03:32So for Chris, for the DraftKings and the flutters of the world, how are they moving forward with their planning,
03:39their rolling out of their prediction market product?
03:43It's moving whether you've fed rapidly or not.
03:46I mean their products are not up to where Kaoshi is.
03:49Kaoshi has all kinds of features that they've yet to rolled out,
03:52all different kinds of bets that DraftKings and FanDuel are just getting started on.
03:57But it's still early days.
03:59They really just started in January.
04:01They both have said they're going to be a big push starting with the World Cup next month
04:05and then going into NFL season.
04:07So we'll see.
04:08But, you know, this is a unique time because, you know, prior to this year,
04:12you couldn't use FanDuel or DraftKings in California where I live, for example.
04:16And now through this prediction market product, I can.
04:19So we'll see if that translates into more bettors.
Comments