Kalshi hired 15-year-old streamer before legal intervened

Prediction markets are essentially casinos where people pay to lose money shaking virtual 8-balls. The companies who run them, like Kalshi, want you to think of them as some high-minded enterprises providing public value when they are actually just DraftKings for people who consume too much news.

And even if that weren’t the case, it would be hard to take a company seriously when it’s trying to pay 15-year-old video game streamers to hype up its business. The Wall Street Journal has a new report about the recent explosion in attention around Kalshi and Polymarket and their impact on the sports-fueled University of Miami campus as a microcosm of the technology’s broader societal impact.

“In September, Kalshi briefly signed up a 15-year-old videogame streamer who goes by vert1d online to promote its brand on X as an affiliate,” reads the report. “Yo brother, legal team confirmed that we can’t work with minors rn,” a Kalshi employee allegedly wrote to vert1d a week later.

kalshi, polymarket, prediction markets, draftkings, vert1d, 15-year-old, video streamer, affiliate marketing, wsj, miami