Kalshi Enlists Industry Strategist Slane As It Fights To Legally Offer Sports Markets

Need help as a sports betting operator navigating relationships with the various entities and authorities with which you intersect? Gambling industry strategist Sara Slane is on just about any short list of people to call.

Clearly, prediction market operator Kalshi feels that way (even if it’s not willing to define itself as a “sports betting operator”). As Sports Business Journal reported Tuesday morning, Kalshi has hired Slane as its new head of corporate development.

The move comes at a pivotal and volatile time for Kalshi, which has received cease-and-desist letters in six states (most recently Maryland), is being investigated in at least three others (most recently Michigan), and is embroiled in lawsuits with New Jersey and Nevada (with other states possibly to follow).

Slane’s role will include public affairs, government relations, and liaising with the sports leagues, according to SBJ, and she will report directly to Kalshi CEO and co-founder Tarek Mansour.

“A lot of it right now is just educating everybody, because there’s just so much misinformation out there,” Slane told SBJ’s Bill King. “It’s hard to crack through some of that, but that’s what they’re hoping I can do.”

Prior to posting on Twitter/X about her new position on Tuesday, Slane’s only activity on the social media site in the past 21 months was a retweet of Mansour from March 24, in which he announced the launch of Kalshi’s Consumer Protection Hub:

Kalshi wants to ‘build something enduring’

In her own post Tuesday, Slane revealed that she started consulting for Kalshi “a few months ago.”

She continued: “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.” She added that “Kalshi isn’t worried about the short-term — they want to build something enduring.”

Kalshi is regulated federally by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and entered the U.S. sports “gaming” consciousness shortly before this year’s Super Bowl when it began allowing users to trade contracts (risk money) on the outcomes of sporting events. Kalshi — along with Robinhood and Crypto.com — has been in the crosshairs of a growing number of state regulators ever since.

The Baltimore-based Slane’s first major gambling industry role came as vice president of regional government affairs for MGM Resorts International for seven years, after which she worked for five years, from 2014-19, as senior vice president of public affairs for the American Gaming Association.

She departed the AGA to begin her own consultancy firm, Slane Advisory, where she worked with entities ranging from sports leagues to gaming startups — and, we now know, Kalshi.

Slane was named to Sports Business Journal’s “Forty Under 40” list in 2019, and the next year, at just 40 years of age, she was inducted into the SBC’s Sports Betting Hall of Fame.

In her social media post Tuesday, Slane expressed her excitement about Kalshi’s ambition and where the company is headed.

“Within a few months of launching sports, they have already managed to build a frontier product experience, with better pricing, robust risk management, and captivating live charts,” she wrote. “The trading volume, web traffic, attention in the media, and the long list of companies ready to integrate as brokers with Kalshi is staggering.

“I’m joining as Head of Corporate Development to help handle some of that integration demand. 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.”