Kalshi raises $1 billion at a $40 billion valuation, nearly double the combined market cap of Flutter and DraftKings

Kalshi has raised $1 billion at a $40 billion valuation, a number that puts the prediction markets platform in a bracket that matters to operators watching U.S. betting economics. The AVC view is simple enough: prediction markets are becoming one of the main competitive threats to American sportsbooks, and that is part of the 2026 iGaming shift they are tracking.

1. Kalshi’s new valuation is $40 billion after the $1 billion raise. For context, that is described as almost twice the combined market capitalization of Flutter and DraftKings, which is the sort of comparison that gets attention from sportsbook finance teams and payment partners alike.
2. AVC says prediction markets are one of the main competitive challenges for U.S. bookmakers. The key point for high-risk payments is not branding or product packaging; it is that a different betting-like category is scaling into the same consumer wallet and attention set.
3. The original note frames this as part of what is changing in the iGaming market in 2026, based on AVC’s analysis. No further details were provided in the source, so the only hard takeaway is that prediction markets are now being treated as a structural competitor, not a side story.

For PSPs, acquirers, and banking partners, the practical signal is that U.S. wagering-adjacent flows are no longer a neat sportsbook-only problem. If prediction markets keep attracting capital at this scale, they will sit closer and closer to the same risk, compliance, and payment-routing questions that have long defined high-risk gaming.