Prediction market platform Kalshi has signed a sponsorship marketing deal with Lionel Messi and the Argentine Football Association (AFA) in an announcement revealed ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
The tournament, which is being hosted in the USA, Canada and Mexico, sees defending champions Argentina link up with the prediction market provider for the duration of the competition.
"Argentina is the standard of excellence in world football," stated Adam Barrick who is the head of sports partnerships at Kalshi. "That's exactly who Kalshi belongs aside. We're building the future of how people engage with live events, and partnering with the reigning champions of the beautiful game is the clearest signal we can send about where we're headed."
Players giving it large on socials
On the day of the partnership announcement, Lionel Messi shared a Kalshi-branded post on Instagram featuring Argentina teammates, Rodrigo De Paul and Nicolas Otamendi.
Messi, who has 508 million followers on the social media platform, was promoting a giveaway for a signed shirt. At the time of writing, the post has received over 1.6 million likes and more than 7,100 comments.
Argentina started their defence of the trophy with a 3-0 victory over Algeria in their first match, with all three goals being scored by Lionel Messi himself. Widely seen as being one of the best players in the history of the sport, it's a huge achievement for Kalshi to partner with the Inter Miami player.
As part of the deal, Kalshi will also receive official sports data from Genius Sports to help create the support and settlement of sports related prediction contracts.
"By using verified official data as a consistent source of truth, the agreement will contribute to enhancing the transparency while reducing reliance on unofficial or delayed data sources," Kalshi said in a statement.
"Kalshi will also participate in Genius Sports' integrity information-sharing processes to strengthen market transparency and provide professional sports leagues with greater visibility into related market activity."
Other celebrities on Kalshi's roster
This isn't the first time Kalshi has used high-profile sports players in their marketing promotions. Earlier this year, golfer Bryson DeChambeau and two-time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo signed deals with the company whilst earlier this month, legendary manager Jose Mourinho also appeared in a Kalshi social media campaign. The post generated more than 137,000 likes alongside the slogan: 'Some people watch the game. Some see what's next.'
Leandro Petersen, AFA chief commercial and marketing officer, added: "Kalshi is a leader in its category, and their decision to partner with AFA is a testament to the global strength our brand has built since 2017. Each new alliance of this calibre reinforces that the path we charted for AFA's international expansion is the right one, and that the world's leading organisations want to be a part of it."
Signing one of the sports biggest stars for the World Cup is a huge win for Kalshi and with them reporting a record $5.1B in notional trading volume during the opening week of the tournament, it seems like they're scoring a win both on and off the pitch.
