Kalshi sent Netflix $NFLX a cease-and-desist letter last Friday demanding the streaming service remove the trailer for an upcoming documentary, claiming the footage is defamatory and contains fabricated content.
The prediction market company says the trailer for "Instadocs: The Prediction Games" is defamatory and contains fabricated documents
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Kalshi sent Netflix $NFLX a cease-and-desist letter last Friday demanding the streaming service remove the trailer for an upcoming documentary, claiming the footage is defamatory and contains fabricated content.
The documentary, "Instadocs: The Prediction Games," traces the rise of prediction markets and debuted Sunday on Netflix. Its trailer centers on a gathering in Las Vegas during the World Cup final, where attendees boasted about their earnings on prediction platforms including Kalshi, and one participant pulled out his phone to display what looked like a $5,000 wager on Spain to take the tournament.
Kalshi argued in its letter that Netflix had created the false impression that a trader successfully completed that transaction on Kalshi in Nevada on July 19, 2026. The company said it is currently barred from operating sports-related markets in Nevada under a court order stemming from a lawsuit filed by the Nevada Gaming Commission. The bet shown, Kalshi said, was actually placed on May 16, 2025, before any such restrictions were in place.
Netflix does not dispute that the screenshot dates to 2025. A spokesperson told TechCrunch that the scene was captured at a Winible World Cup Watch Weekend event in Las Vegas on July 17, 2026, and explained that the individual on screen had pulled up an old screenshot of a transaction completed before any Nevada court order took effect. "No footage in Instadocs: The Prediction Games was fabricated," the spokesperson said.
Kalshi also contended the screenshot was fabricated on the grounds that it displayed terminology such as "bet slip" that the company says has never existed on its platform. Kalshi deliberately steers clear of gambling-adjacent language like "wager" or "betting," insisting its products are derivative-swap instruments rather than gambling contracts — a distinction it considers critical in its ongoing regulatory and court battles, according to CNN. The Netflix spokesperson declined to comment on that specific claim.
In its letter, Kalshi said a Netflix employee had agreed not to feature the screenshot in the documentary itself, but that Netflix refused to pull it from the trailer. "Netflix had a chance to make a genuinely interesting documentary about prediction markets," Kalshi head of marketing Brandon Beckhardt said in a statement. "Instead, they made a sensationalized film built on fiction."
Netflix maintained its position. "Netflix upholds the highest standards of journalistic integrity in its documentary programming," a spokesperson said, according to CNN.
Among those who sat for interviews in the documentary are Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour and Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan. Kalshi added 3 million new users during the 2026 FIFA World Cup, with total World Cup trading volume on the platform exceeding $12 billion. The company has faced a wave of state-level lawsuits challenging whether its sports contracts amount to unlicensed gambling operations; courts in Nevada, Michigan, and Washington state have each issued rulings curtailing some portion of Kalshi's activity.
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