Exclusive: Perplexity, Kalshi prediction market partner on March Madness
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Perplexity will integrate betting odds from prediction market Kalshi as part of a partnership that kicks off with this year's NCAA basketball tournaments.
Why it matters: The move adds another source of real-time data to Perplexity's AI-based search engine and gives Kalshi new exposure.
Driving the news: Kalshi's data on the NCAA men's and women's tournaments will be integrated into Perplexity throughout the tournaments, with users being shown odds both before and during the games.
- Neither company is paying the other as part of the arrangement, a source familiar with the deal tells Axios.
- While the partnership will kick off with March Madness, Kalshi said the goal is to eventually expand — including beyond sports.
The big picture: March Madness represents a big opportunity for tech and media companies as Americans — many of them at work — look to keep tabs on the college hoops tournaments.
- ESPN, CBS, Yahoo and others aim to make their sites the go-to destination, while upstarts like Perplexity are looking to nab a piece of the action.
What they're saying:
- "When you combine high-quality answers with real-time prediction markets, it makes for a pretty impactful user experience," Dmitry Shevelenko, chief business officer of Perplexity, said in a statement to Axios. "Being able to bring tournament odds and live game predictions directly into Perplexity offers a depth that other AI platforms and sports apps are lacking."
- "Kalshi provides the highest-quality data on future events in the world, while Perplexity is becoming the best source for information on anything," Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour said in a statement to Axios. "It's only natural for these two emerging technologies to partner and redefine the future of news and information."
