The Trial Balance is CFO.com’s weekly preview of stories, stats and events to help you prepare.
Part 1 — U.S. betting platform Kalshi names its first CFO amid regulatory scrutiny
Kalshi, the New York-based startup whose betting platform has drawn the ire of regulators in several states, has named its first company-wide chief financial officer.
Tech industry trade publication The Information reported Monday that the betting and financial exchange company has tapped former Uber executive Saurabh Tejwani as CFO. The company, which is reportedly valued at $5 billion, operates several prediction markets that allow users to bet on everything from climate and cryptocurrency value to elections and sports. Tejwani told The Information that an IPO for Kalshi is “something we will consider” but didn’t mention a timeline.
Kalshi is betting big on the future of betting in the United States, even as regulators in New York and other states are ramping up scrutiny on such prediction markets. The company has, for instance, purchased big electronic ads in New York City showing the current odds of victory for candidates in the city’s mayoral election this week. Zohran Mamdani, seen as the Democratic front-runner in that race, even referenced Kalshi by name at a recent rally, local publication Gothamist reported. He told supporters not to grow complacent based on his odds on the platform.
“When you see the Kalshi odds that have our chances of victory in the 90s, know this: You are reading the same things that Andrew Cuomo read when he went to sleep each night in June,” Mamdani said at the time, according to Gothamist.
Despite such mentions and sleek advertising campaigns, Kalshi faces an uncertain future in the U.S. Its competitor platform Polymarket, for instance, paused operations in the country following a settlement with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission during the Biden administration.
The New York State Gaming Commission in late October sent a letter to Kalshi demanding the firm to stop running what regulators deemed an “unlicensed mobile sports wagering platform.” The letter, sent Oct. 24, largely focused on Kalshi’s sports betting operations, which leaves open questions about the company’s other betting arenas, including elections.
A few days later, Kalshi went on to file its own suit against gambling commission leaders. In that suit, the company called into question New York State’s “intrusion into the federal government’s exclusive authority to regulate derivatives trading on exchanges overseen by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.”
What direction the CFTC will take under the Trump administration, and how the courts will respond, remains to be seen. For what it’s worth, Kalshi in January tapped the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., as a senior adviser. At the time, the company portrayed its platform as a “proven tool for truth” amid predictions on the 2024 presidential election. Trump Jr.’s appointment, company officials said, marked a “major milestone for the future of Kalshi — and for how Americans uncover the truth in today’s fractured, often biased media landscape.”
The question about the legitimacy of prediction markets popped up again late last week, when Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong closed his company’s earnings call by reciting a list of terms that bettors expected him to say. On prediction markets, users had bet as much as $84,000 on the terms Armstrong would say during the call, according to Bloomberg. Armstrong’s move “showed, in blunt fashion, how easily many prediction markets — supposedly tools for collective intelligence — can be steered by the very people they’re meant to observe,” Bloomberg reported.
Kalshi’s newly appointed CFO, meanwhile, will need to navigate the firm’s finances at a time of regulatory and legal uncertainty and upheaval. On the company’s finance team, he’ll join Rebecca Schick, who in May was appointed as CFO of the company’s Kalshi Klear division, which the company describes as “the world’s only tech-first derivatives clearinghouse.”
Part 2 — This week
Here’s a list of important market events slated for the week ahead. Note: Economic reports may be delayed due to the government shutdown.
Monday, Nov. 3
- S&P U.S. manufacturing PMI, Oct.
- ISM manufacturing, Oct.
Tuesday, Nov. 4
- Trade balance, Aug.
- Factory orders, Sept.
- Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, Sept.
Wednesday, Nov. 5
- ADP employment change, Oct.
- U.S. services PMI, Oct.
- ISM services, Oct.
Thursday, Nov. 6
Friday, Nov. 7
- U.S. employment report, Oct.
- U.S. unemployment rate, Oct.
- Univ. of Michigan Consumer Sentiment – Preliminary, Nov.
- Consumer credit, Sept.
Part 3 — Weekly listen: Ryanair CFO Neil Sorahan on Squawk Box
Neil Sorahan, finance chief of Irish air carrier Ryanair, appeared on CNBC’s Squawk Box segment on Monday to talk through highlights from the company’s results in the first half of its fiscal year. Sorahan noted that the airline carried a record 119 million passengers in its first half and was gearing up for growth in the months ahead.
Sorahan said that marked a 3% increase in passenger volume over the prior year, which he said was actually “a bit slower than we would have liked.” He cited delays in Boeing aircraft deliveries earlier in the year, but said that the manufacturer has since “done a great job” and “caught up completely.”
“We’re now, for the first year in many years, looking into a summer where we’ll have a full complement of aircraft,” he said.
