Kalshi has been identified as the latest company deploying unusual marketing techniques on social media platform X.
The US-based prediction market platform’s betting slips have been spotted on various videos from an account with the handle @FCReplays.
This account showcases some of the most iconic moments in recent football history, such as Zlatan Ibrahimović’s 40-yard overhead kick goal against England in 2012 and a compilation of Cristiano Ronaldo’s World Cup goals over the years.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s famous 30-yard bicycle kick vs England pic.twitter.com/X8XZIzokRC
— Football Replays (@FCReplays) June 28, 2026
What’s striking about the videos though is that almost all of them contain a screenshot of a Kalshi betting slip – or “events contract slip” midway through them.
Some of these aren’t even relevant to the video itself. For example, on the clip of Ibrahimović’s overhead kick, a screenshot pops up of a user set to buy a $500 “contract” on France to win the 2026 World Cup, returning a maximum of $1,907.71.
Ibrahimović is not French, not participating in the World Cup and not even playing professional football anymore, having retired in 2023.
In fact, his only glaring link to French football is his four-year spell at PSG – which coincidentally ended exactly 10 years ago (2,191 days) today.
Some posts, in fairness, have screenshots of events contracts slightly more relevant to the video being posted, with Ronaldo’s World Cup goals compilation containing a snap of the likelihood of him moving to LA Galaxy – a 27% chance.
But X users are once again feeling like they are being tricked by sly marketing ploys set by prediction market operators.
One user reposted the Ibrahimović clip with the quote: “took back my like so fast”, while a community note on the post states: “This video includes a digitally inserted ad for Kalshi that does not appear in the original 2012 match footage.”
In fairness, the post is accompanied by a “paid partnership” note, but that video alone has already racked up 878,000 views.
Other videos, including one of the highlights of Saudi Arabia’s group stage game against Egypt in the 2018 World Cup, do not have a “paid partnership” note on them.
Saudi Arabia vs Egypt 2018 World Cup pic.twitter.com/tRderesyT8
— Football Replays (@FCReplays) June 26, 2026
It seems that the account promoting Kalshi is only a recent development too, with posts as recent as 29 May – a video of the highlights of the 2011 Copa America Final between Uruguay and Paraguay – not containing screenshots of Kalshi’s events contracts.
Kalshi joins others in social media marketing tactics
Subtle social media marketing tactics like this are not exclusive to Kalshi. This is common for gambling companies like Rainbet and Duel.
It has also been revealed that Polymarket, Kalshi’s biggest rival in the predictions markets space, took a similar route ahead of the World Cup.
The firm has been approaching UK influencers to ask them to repost Polymarket posts in order to boost engagement – a practice revealed by UK content creator Ellis Platten.
Kalshi has struck deals with the Argentina and Croatia national football teams, which has seen the brand appear on the Instagrams of Luka Modrić and Lionel Messi during the World Cup.
Yet it seems that the company is still set on deploying marketing strategies like this, which could be said to deceive the viewer if the fact the arrangements are paid partnerships are not made clear.
Another spot of bother that Kalshi could run into in regards to this is that the account posting these videos and promoting its brand is based in Canada – a jurisdiction where Kalshi is not legally available.
In Canada, the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) has explicitly banned the advertising, sale, and trading of binary options to retail investors.
With Kalshi’s event contracts falling under this umbrella and the platform being completely unregistered in Canada, promoting it could indicate that the X account is actively soliciting people in the country to use an illegal platform.
It begs the question as to why a company which is seeking a valuation of some $40bn and is reportedly experiencing daily volume of over $1bn is still set on treading on thin ice with regulators and policymakers across the world.