Red Sox Promote Kalshi As Massachusetts Ban Stays In Force
The Boston Red Sox promoted prediction market Kalshi on social media and in a fan email over the team's August 21 to 23, 2026, homestand against the San Francisco Giants, even though a Massachusetts court order remains in force blocking Kalshi from offering sports-related contracts to people in the state.
The Red Sox led off a homestand preview post on their official X account with the line "presented by Kalshi," and the team separately sent subscribers a marketing email encouraging them to download Kalshi's app, according to a post by Sportico assistant editor Dan Bernstein, who shared a screenshot of the email on X.
The email's marketing copy referenced predictions on inflation, interest rates, elections, and major world events rather than sports specifically. When contacted to confirm a formal partnership, neither Kalshi nor the Red Sox responded.
The Massachusetts Order Kalshi Is Still Fighting
Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell sued Kalshi in September 2025, alleging that its sports-related event contracts constitute unlicensed sports wagering under state law.
On January 20, 2026, the Massachusetts Attorney General's office announced that a Superior Court judge had granted a preliminary injunction barring Kalshi from letting Massachusetts users trade on anything that “constitutes sports wagering,” including contracts tied to games such as Red Sox matches, and denied Kalshi's motion to dismiss the case.
Kalshi appealed to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, which heard oral argument in April 2026 but has not yet ruled. A judge denied Kalshi's request to pause the injunction pending the appeal, so the company has had to keep Massachusetts users off its sports markets in the meantime.
Kalshi's sports contracts are separately blocked in Nevada, Michigan, and Washington state, and the company faces active litigation in more than 20 states.
Massachusetts Has Also Challenged Kalshi's Marketing
In June 2026, Massachusetts amended its lawsuit to add claims about Kalshi's marketing practices, alleging that the company specifically targets users under 21 on university campuses.
Kalshi sets its minimum trading age at 18, below the state's 21-plus legal gambling age for regulated online sportsbooks. It is not clear whether recipients of the Red Sox marketing email included users under 21.
Part Of A Wider Sports Push
The apparent Red Sox tie-up follows a run of partnerships between prediction market operators and major sports properties. Kalshi already has arrangements with the Chicago Blackhawks, LALIGA North America, and the Argentina Football Association, while rival Polymarket holds an official partnership with Major League Baseball and struck a deal with the New York Yankees earlier in August 2026.
New York, like Massachusetts, is separately locked in legal disputes with both Kalshi and Polymarket over their sports-contract offerings, and sports organizations' growing willingness to work with the platforms is testing how far state crackdowns can extend.
Unlike Polymarket's publicized league and team deals, the Red Sox activity has so far gone without a press release from either side, leaving open the question of whether it is a formal sponsorship or a more limited marketing arrangement.
If confirmed as a partnership, it would put a Massachusetts franchise in the position of promoting a platform the state's own attorney general has spent nearly a year in court trying to restrict.
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