When one of the world’s global news giants decides to rely on predictive markets to fuel its reporting, traditional journalism as a whole is shaken. On 3 December 2025, CNN announced an unprecedented partnership with Kalshi, a prediction market platform, laying the foundations for a new form of journalistic storytelling — based not only on what has happened, but on what the market believes is likely to happen.
When CNN bets on the future with Kalshi
Kalshi has just signed what could be considered a founding act for the journalism of tomorrow. The CNN group has decided to officially and systematically integrate real-time probabilities from prediction markets, covering topics as varied as politics, culture, general news and even the weather.
In concrete terms, Kalshi will provide CNN with a data feed via an API that the channel can use in its reports on its television, digital, streaming and social media platforms. A live ticker will display the odds from these markets when relevant, and the editorial, data analysis and production teams will be able to draw on them to enhance their understanding of upcoming events.
Notably, CNN will not pay for access to this data, and the agreement stipulates that no other competing platform will be able to provide predictive data to CNN — this is an exclusive partnership.
Reporting on the future, not just the present or the past
According to Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour, the goal of this partnership is to give journalists a new, data-driven angle to better understand the world: rather than simply reporting on what has happened or is happening, the idea is to draw on probabilities of what might happen.
Harry Enten, chief data analyst at CNN, will lead this integration. He is expected to use Kalshi’s figures in his analyses, whether on air, in broadcast reports or to feed the group’s digital content.
Sam Felix, CNN’s head of strategic partnerships, said:
“CNN is renowned for its accurate, fact-based journalism and analysis that helps the public understand what is happening. By partnering with Kalshi to feature market forecast data in our programmes, CNN journalists will have a new, data-driven angle from which to explore and better understand the world around us.”
Thus, journalistic reporting — traditionally rooted in facts and the past — is opening up to a forward-looking dimension. This approach is still rare in the mainstream media, but it could redefine what it means to inform in a constantly changing world.
The challenges of bringing the media and predictive markets closer together
This partnership raises several major issues. First, it highlights the rapid growth of regulated predictive markets such as Kalshi: long confined to a niche market, they are now entering the mainstream media.
But it also raises ethical and editorial questions. Until now, the media have reported on solid, verifiable facts. However, basing reports on probabilities, even if they are derived from real market data, is venturing into a grey area: to what extent can a collective bet on the future influence the way information is perceived? Furthermore, the exclusivity granted to Kalshi means that, at this stage, CNN will not use other competing platforms, which could give Kalshi a quasi-monopolistic role in media prediction.
Finally, the broader context shows that other media outlets have already begun integrating market data: platforms such as Polymarket have entered into partnerships with players such as Yahoo Finance, while other platforms are collaborating with publications such as Sports Illustrated and Time. Kalshi itself also collaborates with Google Finance. This points to a broader movement: the emergence of a new type of hybrid journalism—part news, part anticipation, part predictive market.
What does this shift mean for the news of tomorrow?
With this partnership, CNN and Kalshi may be paving the way for a new era of news that is less focused on the past and more oriented towards collective anticipation. Viewers, listeners and readers could see not only verified facts appearing on their screens, but also numerical estimates of what the market believes is likely to happen.
This model could revolutionise the way the media reports the news by incorporating market signals to enrich the context, but it will need to navigate carefully between innovation, transparency and journalistic rigour.