Prediction market Kalshi sent Netflix a cease-and-desist letter on Friday demanding that the streaming service take down the trailer for an upcoming documentary. In the letter, Kalshi claimed that the trailer is “defamatory” and contains “both fabricated documents and false and misleading statements.”
“Instadocs: The Prediction Games” is a documentary about the rise of prediction markets. According to Netflix, the film — part of the streamer’s “Instadoc” series of fast-paced documentaries — features interviews with both Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan and Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour.
However, the trailer focuses on a recent party in Las Vegas where men who have “made millions of dollars on prediction markets, probably eight figures, right during the World Cup” have gathered to watch the World Cup final. One of the guests declares, “I like to bet on Kalshi,” while another displays an apparent $5,000 bet on their phone.
However, Kalshi is currently banned from operating in Nevada due to a court order. In his cease-and-desist letter, Kalshi said the bet shown on the phone is actually a screenshot of a bet made on May 16, 2025 — long before the ban. But the company claimed that in the trailer, Netflix “misled its millions of customers into believing that this individual was able to trade sporting event contracts in Nevada on July 19, 2026.”
In its letter, Kalshi also said it recently spoke with a Netflix employee who “agreed not to show the receipt in the documentary when it is released” on Sunday, July 26.
“However — despite Kalshi demonstrating to this employee that the claims in the video were demonstrably false — Netflix inexplicably refused to remove the receipt from the trailer currently circulating on the Netflix app’s website,” the company said.
Netflix does not dispute that the footage is of a bet from 2025, but a spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter that none of the documentary footage was fabricated.
“The footage was filmed at the Winible World Cup Watch Weekend in Las Vegas on July 17, 2026,” the spokesperson said. “The featured trader with the Spain trade showed us a screenshot of his bets made in May 2025 prior to a court order in Nevada. Any specific trades or bets referenced during that weekend are between the individual and the app they placed the trades in.”
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