• Betting markets are booming ahead of the US presidential election.
• Kalshi attracted $100 million in election betting this month and is the top free financial app in the Apple app store.
• Robinhood is getting in on the act, announcing its own election betting platform on Monday.

The betting markets are having a moment in the 2024 presidential election cycle.

The popularity of platforms that allow users to bet on politics has exploded, with sites such as Polymarket and Kalshi allowing users to bet on certain election outcomes. robinhood is the latest platform to get in on the action, with the popular brokerage app announcing on Monday the launch of its own election betting contracts.

Earlier this month, a US federal appeals court authorized Kalshi to open its electoral betting platform for US citizens. Since then, the platform has attracted more than $100 million in bets on who will win the November 5 election.

Kalshi has surged in popularity on the Apple App Store, ranking #7 on Tuesday morning. Among free financial apps, Kalshi is the biggest download, eclipsing the Cash app, PayPal, and Venmo.

“I think we’re looking at number one for the entire app store by election day, so the demand curve is really exponential,” Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour told CNBC on Monday.

Meanwhile, Polymarket, which is not available to US citizens, has seen an explosion in transaction volume this year.

According to data from The Block, nearly $2 billion was wagered on the Polymarket site in October, roughly four times the $533 million wagered in September and more than 10 times the $39 million wagered in April.

Prior to 2024, monthly trading volume on Polymarket was typically less than $20 million.

Although Polymarket is not available to US users, it has attracted a lot of attention and shaped the discussion about these betting platforms in the US media during the latter part of the election cycle. That’s because the election outcome odds on the platform heavily favor Donald Trump, in stark contrast to the polls, which are extremely close a week out from the vote.

It was also controlled the betting itself on the platform. Part of Polymarket’s trading volume this month comes from a massive “whale” trader. who sometimes bet more than $30 million on the outcome of US elections placing up to 71 bets per minute. The bets were mainly on Donald Trump to win the presidential election.

Interactive Brokers also launched a series of election betting contracts earlier this month following the court’s decision to allow Kalshi to operate.

Between the rapid legalization of sports betting, the continued popularity of cryptocurrency trading, and now the sudden surge of interest around electoral odds, there is a clear convergence of ways in which the average person can make – and in many cases lose – money with a few clicks on their phone. It’s a situation where everyday hobbies become financialized.

According to Kalshi CEO Mansour, the boom in betting markets is a good thing because it allows for a new money-based arbiter of truth.

“Now when you ask a question if TikTok will be banned? Who do we rely on to get that answer? Now there is a market-based mechanism to look at,” Mansour said.

Kalshi’s mission is to bring “more truth to the world through the power of markets,” according to a job posting on its website.