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Kalshi has announced that it raised more than $300 million in a Series D funding round at a $5 billion valuation. The round was led by Sequoia and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), with strong participation from returning investor Paradigm. Other backers include CapitalG, Coinbase Ventures, General Catalyst, and Spark Capital.
The news comes in the same week that Polymarket, Kalshi’s main competitor, revealed that Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, plans to invest up to $2 billion in its platform.
Even so, Kalshi has now pulled ahead of Polymarket to become the biggest player in the prediction market space, holding more than 60% of global market share, according to data from Dune.

Kalshi recently raised $300M+ at $5B from Sequoia, a16z, Paradigm and others.
Since then, we’ve grown over 3x, hit $50B of annualized volume, and became the largest prediction market in the world.
And today…Kalshi goes global.
140+ countries. 1 liquidity pool. pic.twitter.com/Z2myzRw9bA
— Tarek Mansour (@mansourtarek_) October 10, 2025

The round was actually raised in August, and since then, Kalshi has expanded its reach to more than 140 countries. The move effectively created the world’s only unified global prediction market and opened the door to billions of potential new users. People outside the US will now reportedly be able to use Kalshi through its website with the same experience as American customers.
Series D funding could push Kalshi into the mainstream
In a statement shared with ReadWrite, Alfred Lin, partner at Sequoia and a member of Kalshi’s board, said: “Tarek and Luana’s bold vision to make prediction markets mainstream initially drew us to partner with Kalshi in 2020.
“Since then, they’ve built a category-defining company that represents the future of how markets democratize information. We’re excited to deepen our partnership as Kalshi redefines what it means to have an opinion about the future.”
The CFTC-regulated exchange hit a major milestone with more than $1 billion traded on its platform, pushing its annualized trading volume above $50 billion. In September, Kalshi captured the majority of global prediction market volume, a huge leap from just 2% a year earlier, especially impressive given it only operated in one country at the time.
“Kalshi has emerged as the leading prediction market platform, and we’re thrilled to back them,” said Alex Immerman, partner on a16z’s Growth Fund.
“Tarek and Luana chose the difficult but more responsible path of becoming the first CFTC regulated prediction market, and their breadth of markets, liquidity, and infrastructure are built for scale. Kalshi has the opportunity to capture what may become the largest and most important financial market.”
Following the announcement, DraftKings stock dipped 0.75% and Flutter dropped 3%.
Featured image: Kalshi
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A duo from Braintree, Massachusetts, both pled guilty in Suffolk Superior Court over charges relating to unlicensed basement casinos in the area’s Chinatown and Quincy.

The two people, husband and wife, Xue Tan Zheng, 50, and Xiu Rong Li, 55, admitted to the crimes, netting them fifteen felonies apiece. This includes the transporting and trafficking of 12,000 unstamped cigarettes, along with the registering of bets and possession of unlicensed gaming machines.

The fifteen felonies break down like this:

Two counts of possession of an unlicensed gaming device
Two counts of registering bets
Two counts of tax evasion and filing false tax returns
Two counts of transporting 12,000 unstamped cigarettes
Three counts of money laundering
Three counts of trafficking more than 12,000 cigarettes

According to the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office, Li and Zheng ran the two underground casinos from 2022. These provided tables, devices, slot machines, and cash payouts without any regulation. The unstamped cigarettes were then sold within the establishments.
Massachusetts seized over $6 million in cigarettes from underground casinos pair

Law enforcement raided the different locations back in September 2024. This is where they had a large seizure, as outside of the “more than 12,000” mentioned in the guilty plea, they secured “600,000 packs of unstamped cigarettes” at different residences and businesses. According to the press release, this tallies over $6,000,000. The husband and wife duo would sell the cigarettes without tax, which breaks tax mandates set by the Commissioner of Revenue.

Another 22 slot machines were also seized, along with $141,000. Of course, the tax office will get its due, as law enforcement found that they didn’t file their taxes properly in 2022 and 2023. Previous reports put that figure at around $1.2 million of income that wasn’t taxed.

The pair were originally indicted in April, after the Tobacco Task Force uncovered the underground casinos during an investigation. Zheng will serve three years in state prison.
Featured image: WikiCommons / CC BY-SA 3.0

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Kambi, a sports betting solution provider, has announced it’ll join forces with Glitnor Group. The group runs Happy, Lucky, Flax, and Vera&John, which will now switch over to Kambi’s Turnkey Sportsbook technology.
This particular method of providing sportsbooks to operators allows companies to “grow faster than the market.” Effectively, it provides all the tools an operator would need to manage sports gambling operations, including “customer intelligence and risk management”, key points in recent weeks.
Core to its tech, Kambi’s Turnkey Sportsbook provides a “high-performance” piece of software intended to “deliver precision pricing” when setting bets.
Glitnor will now replace the business-to-business sportsbook provider it currently has, switching to Kambi. This will be implemented across its range of casinos in Sweden, the Netherlands, and Ontario, among other locations.
Kambi and Glitnor CEOs comment on partnership
In the press release, Werner Becher, CEO of Kambi, said: “We are incredibly pleased to welcome Glitnor Group to the Kambi network following their decision to switch to our award-winning sportsbook.
“This multi-jurisdictional agreement is a testament to the strength of our premium Turnkey Sportsbook, proven to deliver cutting-edge technology that drives growth, ensures regulatory peace of mind and creates a world-class betting experience for players.”
Richard Brown, CEO of Glitnor Group, added: “Partnering with Kambi was a clear choice for us as we looked to elevate our sportsbook offering.
“Kambi’s market-leading technology, proven track record and unrivalled expertise give us the foundation to deliver a premium, seamless sports betting experience to our players.
“We’re confident this partnership will enable us to achieve long-term success in our core markets.”
Kambi has been quite busy through 2025, with the last few months spent securing new clients through deals. It recently made deals with LeoVegas, New York’s Oneida Indian Nation, and RedCap.
Featured image: Kambi / Glitnor Group
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A gambling ring based in India has been busted by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED), the country’s economic intelligence agency. The results saw law enforcement recover valuables, particularly gold.
It stems from an ongoing investigation into politician, K C Veerendra, who was found to be helping run the illegal betting ring. Using sites like King567 and Raja567, Veerendra and others behind the operation would reportedly funnel money spent on the sites through various laundering methods, while also cheating players out of their cash.
Veerendra was arrested in August and remains in custody. The money that was laundered can still be seen, as police have extensively documented what they’ve managed to recover so far.
Reported numbers of the betting ring’s earnings total over ₹2,000 crore ($169,692,555), making it one of India’s largest financial scams. The group would spend some funds on advertising, manipulating search engine results through Search Engine Optimisation tactics, and sending text messages in bulk.
India sees one of its largest scams as Veerendra gambling ring raided

ED conducted searches in the K C Veerendra illegal online betting case, seizing 40 kg gold worth Rs. 50.33 crore from Challekere lockers. Total assets seized so far exceed Rs. 150 crore. Investigation revealed Veerendra, an MLA, and associates ran betting sites like King567,… pic.twitter.com/Yj3i9vD2JK
— IANS (@ians_india) October 9, 2025

In the most recent part of the investigation, ED seized various assets that were found on properties involved. This has now surpassed ₹150 crore ($16,917,225). ED recovered 21KG of gold bars and 40KG of 24-carat gold bullion worth ₹50.33 crore ($5,637,995). This was found amongst other valuables.
In August, when the ED raided five casinos linked with the betting ring, they seized multiple memberships to international casinos. The agency also seized 12 crore ($1,353,134.40) in cash, with 1 crore ($112,761.20) in foreign currencies.
During this raid, various cars were seized as well, all of which had the same VIP registration number, 0003. They also froze 17 bank accounts linked with the betting ring.
Police found so much gold that the images shared with the public included spelling out “ED” out of the gold bars recovered. ED will now proceed to the next step of the investigation, with efforts being put in to uncover the full network.
In September, Indian law enforcement also raided another gambling ring in light of tightening control over the industry.
Featured image: KC Veerenda via Instagram, ED via Twitter
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The director of a glazing company has received a sentence for defrauding the UK government by misappropriating COVID relief loans to fund gambling and crypto investments.
Haralambos Ioannou, the 49-year-old in question, was found to have used his company, Opti-Bond (GB) Ltd, as a front to obtain the two loans of £100,000 ($133,000) in total.
Glazing firm director swindles COVID relief loans for gambling
The funds were supposed to be used to bridge the financial hardship that businesses had been facing during the global pandemic. Named Covid Bounce Back loans, they each were valued at £50,000 ($67,000), but only one of these loans could be applied to qualifying businesses.
Ioannou, according to the UK government, applied for the first loan to business-related matters, but the second was used “ for personal purposes, breaking the rules of the scheme.”
David Snasdell, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, said, “He not only fraudulently applied for a second loan but then spent it on activities which had nothing to do with his company’s operations such as gambling, crypto-investments, cash withdrawals and payments to his then partner.”
Ioannou uses money to fund his personal life
He applied for the first of the loans in May 2020, stating that the window company’s 2019 turnover was £216,000. He would then submit a second loan application on Opti-Bond’s turnover in 2019, but he changed the figure to £236,000 ($314,000).
He was reported to have received both loan payments across eight days and would then process thirty-eight fraudulent transactions totalling £20,000 ($27,000) to his personal account.
Cross-referenced with the payments he made in this time frame to gambling companies, Ioannou is reported to have made £25,000 ($33,000) worth of deposits and transactions.
In addition to the gambling payments, he also made £8,000 worth of investments in cryptocurrency companies, withdrew £6,000 from ATMs, and transferred £16,000 to his now-ex wife, all from the loan monies.
Opti-Bond entered insolvency in November 2021, and the company director failed to alert the Insolvency Service of the initial Bounce Back Loan or the second loan he used for personal expenditure.
He has received a sentence of 22 months in custody, which has been suspended for a period of two years.
Featured image: Canva
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