Former American Gaming Association Executive Joins KalshiAmidst Legal Battles, Sara Slane Becomes Kalshi's Head Of Corporate Development |
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Despite facing pushback regarding the company’s sports prediction markets in multiple states, regulated futures exchange Kalshi is apparently making overtures to the gaming industry via a new hire.
Kalshi announced this week that Sara Slane, former senior vice president of public affairs at the American Gaming Association, has joined the company as head of corporate development. Along with public affairs, she will also be in charge of government relations and communication with sports leagues.
Kalshi noted that Slade will “lead Kalshi’s efforts to build strategic relationships with brokers, institutional players, and other key partners at this critical time in the company’s growth in sports.”
Roots In Sports Betting
Slane worked at the AGA for more than five years and campaigned to overturn the Professional Amateur Sports Protection Act, a virtual ban on sports wagering outside of the state of Nevada. The Supreme Court overturned the law in 2018. She later started a company to advise teams on sports betting issues.
“Never in my career have I seen a company with the combination of characteristics that Kalshi has: bold vision, outlier founders, deep commitment to regulatory compliance, and astronomical growth,” Slane noted on Twitter. “There’s palpable industry excitement about the benefits prediction markets can provide, and I’m thrilled to be working towards a future where all of the operators have prediction markets as part of their product.”
The hiring may be critical as the company is embroiled in legal turmoil after suing New Jersey and Nevada. Those states, along with Montana, Illinois, Maryland, and Ohio, issued cease-and-desist letters to Kalshi after the company began offering sports prediction markets as March Madness tipped off. Gaming regulators in Washington and Kansas are also reportedly looking into the issue.
The states argued that the markets were illegal online sports betting, and the platform is now offering prediction markets on one of golf’s major tournaments, The Masters. Kalshi has argued that its offerings aren’t the same as sports betting and that the company “operates under the comprehensive oversight of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.”
“We’re not necessarily very concerned [because] we are regulated at the federal level,” Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour said last week at a StrictlyVC event in San Francisco. “The state law doesn’t really apply.”
He added: “We have a license. It’s by the CFTC.”
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