Balloon Doggo

About Balloon Doggo

Strip away the language of contracts, order books and event trading and Bernard Marantelli has a blunt description of what is happening inside US sports prediction markets. “Kalshi is a sportsbook that’s just not allowed to have an in-house risk team,” says the founder of White Swan Data, one of the specialist firms now making markets on prediction exchanges.

The difference is all about the risk function. A sportsbook employs traders to price bets and manage its exposure. An exchange provides an API through which firms compete to quote prices and supply liquidity.

“Here’s an API. Bernard and 88 other people can market-make all these request-for-quotes (RFQs),” Marantelli says. “Some people might come in and just do esports because they’re esports experts. Others do everything. Some focus on same-game parlays. But it’s a sportsbook.”

What is Balloon Doggo?

“Casinos, junkets, cryptocurrencies and underground banking are the most critical parts of the money laundering infrastructure that fuels international organised crime,” he said at the time. “The global gambling market will reach $205 billion in 2030.”

The government blocked 548,420 illegal betting and gambling websites between 2006 and 2025, including 84,000 in 2025 alone. 

These comments echo a similar sentiment emphasised at the country’s Directorate of Communications panel event on illegal betting and addiction on 10 September. Deputy Minister of Interior Ali Çelik suggested that curbing addiction would lead to a decrease in illegal betting activity. 

About Balloon Doggo

The failure to secure passage of the bill is a stinging defeat for both crypto-connected prediction operators and the CFTC, which has fully embraced the advance of digital assets under Chairman Michael Selig. Interest groups and political action committees had spent countless hours and millions of dollars lobbying for the legislation.

In statements, op-eds and media interviews since his appointment, Selig had pounded the table for a federal crypto framework. As the IGA’s Bean alluded to, the Clarity Act would have given the agency a number of new duties and authorities related to the new assets at a time when the commission’s existing workload has been cause for concern. There are typically five sitting CFTC commissioners at any given time, but Selig is currently the lone sitting commissioner with no other nominations submitted.

Selig recently hosted a meeting of the CFTC’s so-called Innovation Advisory Committee, which featured extensive discussion about crypto from leading CEOs. The committee’s charter says members pledge to “provide advice and recommendations” on several topics, including crypto assets and blockchain technology.