Federal Appeals Court Approves Election Betting

A U.S. federal appeals court ruled presidential election markets are legal, clearing regulatory uncertainty hanging over prediction markets such as Polymarket and Kalshi.

After being rejected by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in September 2023, prediction market KalshiEX’s appeal to list election derivatives was overturned just in time for the 2024 presidential election.

As the 2024 presidential election approaches, demand for election betting services is continuing to rise. Decentralized prediction market, Polymarket, broke its monthly volume record for the fifth consecutive month, with $533 million bet across the platform in September. Roughly 73% of that volume was concentrated on elections, according to Dune Analytics.

Fantasy.Top Takes on Politics

With election betting volume ramping up, FantasyTop, the SocialFi trading card game (TCG), introduced its first non-crypto-focused game, Presidential Tactics.

Fantasy.Top allows users to take a “daily fantasy” approach towards betting on the social performance of crypto personalities on Twitter, with scores determined by factors such as their total reach, impressions, and follower count.

Presidential Tactics uses the same concept but on political figures such as Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, as well as individual members of the House and Senate. The first Presidential Tactics game had 2,093 unique entries competing for a prize pool of $41,000 USDC, Blast Gold, and additional card NFTs.

Upon the announcement, Fantasy.Top said, “as a Social Prediction Market, Thematic-Tactics blends the best of culture, gaming, and entertainment. Fueled by real-time X data, it moves away from traditional collectibles gameplay, harnessing the successful mechanics introduced by Prediction Markets.