News outlets add prediction-market partners before the midterms

Prediction-market operators have struck a series of commercial partnerships with major US news organisations as the midterm elections approach, placing traders’ odds alongside conventional political reporting. Bloomberg reported that CNN, CBS News, Dow Jones and CNBC are among outlets using arrangements with Kalshi and Polymarket to supplement their coverage.

The deals can feature contracts on which party will control the House of Representatives and on the Texas Senate race. They arrive as prediction markets become a growing revenue source for media companies, even as some observers object to the expanding use of gambling odds in political journalism.

CBS News has made Kalshi its prediction-market sponsor and plans to combine the platform’s data with the network’s polling in its midterm coverage. As we reported in September, the network said it would show real-time Kalshi prices alongside its own election polling.

Anthony Salvanto, CBS News’s director of elections and surveys, has drawn a distinction between the two measures: polls show how people say they feel, while markets show what traders think may happen. CBS said the paired data would offer a broader picture, while stressing that voters, rather than market participants, decide elections.

The partnerships extend beyond CBS. Kalshi has agreements with CNBC, CNN, Fox News and The Associated Press to support election and other reporting, according to Truthout. Polymarket has partnerships with Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal, and Substack.

Kalshi argues that traders’ willingness to put money at risk enables prices to respond to breaking developments faster than traditional surveys.

Media experts have raised questions about disclosure, trust and the ethics of news outlets reporting on platforms with which they have commercial ties. Analysts cited by Truthout said such partnerships are often unevenly disclosed or not disclosed at all. Jonathan Reiss argued that a focus on odds can crowd out substantive reporting, making the electoral horse race appear more important than the issues confronting voters.

In a Sept. 1 analysis, the Roosevelt Institute found prediction markets were more deeply embedded in professional sports than in media and finance, but were rapidly extending across all three. The institute argued that alliances with large companies can confer legitimacy on the industry and could narrow the opportunity for meaningful regulation.