Kalshi removes affiliate badges from X as platform cracks down on gambling-related advertising

Abi Bray

25 February 2026 at 5:51am UTC-5

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Prediction market Kalshi has removed promotional markers from social media platform X after a policy shift tightened oversight of gambling-related advertising.

Kalshi confirmed it had stripped affiliate badges from X profiles tied to revenue-sharing arrangements promoting its event contracts, according to The Block.

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The move followed updated paid partnership rules introduced last week by X, which aim to limit undisclosed gambling and sports-betting promotions.

“Add a follow-up reply disclosing that this is a paid promotion for Kalshi. Otherwise, this will result in a suspension,” Nikita Bier, Head of Product at X, wrote in response to one affiliated account.

Kalshi’s badges had identified influencers formally linked to the platform but not employed by it. An account called Prediction News said all affiliated profiles were “under review” after losing the designation.

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A spokesperson for the Kalshi told The Block, “We’ve decided to remove Kalshi badges. People loved the badges, and it was a fun way to engage the community, but it became too difficult to police, and people confused badged accounts with Kalshi-endorsed messages. We’ll figure out other ways to make things fun for our traders.”

Affiliates connected to rival Polymarket continued to display badges on X as of Monday.

The updated policy at X follows several states cracking down on prediction markets, with Nevada filing civil enforcement against Kalshi last week, accusing it of operating unlawful activities.

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The Backstory

Why X’s policy shift matters now

Kalshi’s decision to strip affiliate badges from accounts on X lands at the intersection of platform policy, regulatory heat and a fast-changing market for event contracts. X moved last week to tighten oversight of paid partnerships tied to gambling and sports betting, pressing creators to disclose financial ties or risk suspension. Kalshi’s badges had signaled revenue-sharing relationships, but the platform acknowledged confusion about whether those accounts spoke for the company. The timing is not incidental. Several states have escalated scrutiny of prediction markets, and Kalshi has spent months arguing in courts and in its product messaging that its sports event contracts are federally regulated derivatives, not gambling.

The retreat on X reflects a broader recalibration of how Kalshi communicates, who amplifies that message and how closely its marketing tracks with its legal posture. Affiliates for rival Polymarket continued to display badges on X as of Monday, underscoring divergent risk tolerances among the biggest players in event markets. As X tests stricter disclosures, Kalshi is trying to limit reputational spillover while legal fights play out.

Legal battles set the backdrop

Kalshi’s push to keep operating nationally through a federal derivatives framework has triggered state resistance and court challenges that help explain the company’s recent caution. In Maryland, the company filed suit against the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Commission after a cease-and-desist order, arguing the state cannot regulate what Kalshi calls peer-to-peer swaps overseen by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The complaint seeks preliminary and permanent injunctions and frames Maryland’s move as preempted by federal law.

Kalshi has also faced pushback elsewhere, including Nevada, where state officials initiated civil enforcement. While proceedings differ by jurisdiction, the through line is the same: states view sports outcomes as the province of gambling regulation, while Kalshi contends its yes/no contracts belong to federally supervised futures markets. A recent ruling in California strengthened Kalshi’s hand. A federal judge rejected a bid by three Native American tribes to block Kalshi’s sports contracts, finding the Commodity Exchange Act and the CFTC’s exclusive jurisdiction cover Kalshi’s model. The court also dismissed a false advertising claim tied to marketing about nationwide legality, signaling that, at least for now, federal law is a shield for event-market operators even as states test its edges.

Those cases shape business decisions far beyond the courtroom. The stricter X policy is a platform choice, but it becomes consequential when legal definitions of gambling and financial products are in flux. Kalshi’s removal of affiliate badges reduces the risk that promotional speech elsewhere will be cited against it in state actions while the company seeks favorable rulings to secure a national footprint.

Marketing language under the microscope

Kalshi has already adjusted how it describes its business. Under online scrutiny, the company removed “sportsbook” references from a job listing, rewriting requirements to emphasize “sports market” operations rather than “sportsbook” experience. The edits aligned the posting with Kalshi’s long-standing claim that it is not a sportsbook, even as it rolls out products that resemble betting features.

The outside view has been equally pointed. A Sportico report on the job-listing changes highlighted the tension between Kalshi’s legal stance and elements of its past marketing, such as copy invoking legal “bets.” The company’s move to clean up language and now to pare back affiliate branding on X suggests an effort to eliminate inconsistencies that could undermine its case before regulators and judges. Consistency matters when courts are parsing whether an offering is a derivative or a wager.

Sports push raised both volumes and alarms

Kalshi’s rapid expansion into sports has magnified the stakes. The platform’s NFL “parlay” feature jolted publicly traded sportsbooks in September, briefly erasing billions in market value at DraftKings and Flutter before the dust settled. Subsequent reporting found the panic may have overshot the data. As Sportico detailed, Kalshi’s parlay volume in the second week totaled about $10.1 million and accounted for just 3.1% of its NFL trading and 1.1% of overall activity that week. Still, the overreaction underscored how seriously incumbents took Kalshi’s encroachment, especially as sports swelled to nearly 90% of platform activity in September and weekly volume surpassed $900 million twice this fall.

The broader sector is hot. Prediction platforms have drawn record interest since last year’s U.S. election and are accelerating with sports. Monthly trading across Polymarket and Kalshi has surged, as reflected in The Block’s volume dashboard. That growth makes any policy friction with X more consequential. Creators have been central to funneling traffic to these markets, and disclosure demands can slow or reshape that flow. For Kalshi, a misstep in affiliate messaging can have legal implications as well as commercial ones.

Strategic partners and potential consolidation

The distribution question is not limited to social media. Robinhood has emerged as both a partner and a potential consolidator. The brokerage’s vice president overseeing futures and international said Robinhood is open to acquisitions, a joint venture or partnerships to scale its prediction offering after teaming with Kalshi in March. Robinhood users now account for an estimated 25% to 35% of Kalshi’s daily volume, according to the company’s comments cited in that report. As Polymarket attracted a $2 billion investment from Intercontinental Exchange, competitive pressures intensified and distribution moats became more valuable.

Against that backdrop, Kalshi’s pruning of affiliate signals on X looks less like retreat and more like risk management. With traffic sources diversifying, the company can trade short-term promotional reach for a cleaner compliance profile while it leans on embedded partners and product-led growth. If consolidation accelerates, counterparties will favor assets with fewer regulatory liabilities and tighter brand control.

The road ahead

Kalshi’s core bet remains that federal oversight will prevail over state gambling rules for event contracts and that mainstream investors and sports fans will keep migrating to these markets. The courts have delivered wins and warnings. California’s ruling bolsters the federal-jurisdiction argument. State agencies like Maryland’s signal they will keep testing that premise. Platform policies add yet another layer. X’s crackdown on undisclosed gambling promotions is not aimed at derivatives, but the practical effect is the same: a higher bar for marketing clarity.

That is why an apparently small change — removing affiliate badges — carries outsized weight. It anticipates stricter enforcement, limits confusion about who speaks for the company and reduces surface area for legal attack. Whether Kalshi’s legal theory holds at scale will depend on upcoming rulings. In the meantime, the company is rewriting job posts, trimming public signals and refining products to look more like markets and less like wagers. The path it chooses, and how crisply it walks that line, will help determine whether prediction markets stay a niche phenomenon or become a mainstream asset class edging into the turf of sportsbooks and exchanges alike.