The Esports Desk

Is this esports market actually worth the price?

Esports odds sites tell you the line. Nobody tells you whether lines like that have actually been paying on this exchange. We can, because we write the price of every esports market down before the match, archive how it settles, and join the two. Below: the live board, each market scored against that record, and the record itself. Esports crowds are smaller than stick-and-ball crowds, and thinner crowds make rougher prices, which cuts both ways: more noise, and more genuine mispricings for whoever is paying attention.

Measured, not asserted

Esports favourites on Kalshi have won LESS often than their price implied.

Across 266 settled esports markets priced 75c and up, the price implied 80.6% and they actually settled YES 75.6% of the time, a gap of 5.1 points. At the other end, longshots under 25c implied 21.4% and delivered 24.5%. Before you trade on that, read the fee note below: a gap smaller than the fee is not an edge.

Live esports markets, priced against the record

updated 12:13:03 AM
Galorys wins map 2
vol24 8,298 · worth 58¢ (-6¢ after the 2¢ fee)
66¢RICH
Will over 3.5 maps be played in the Dplus KIA vs. T1 League of Legends match?
vol24 443 · worth 69¢ (-4¢ after the 2¢ fee)
75¢RICH
T1 wins
vol24 58,523 · worth 55¢ (-2¢ after the 2¢ fee)
59¢
Galorys wins
vol24 24,912 · worth 82¢ (-2¢ after the 1¢ fee)
85¢
ODDIK wins
vol24 20,722 · worth 19¢ (+2¢ after the 1¢ fee)
16¢
Will over 2.5 maps be played in the ODDIK vs. Galorys CS2 match?
vol24 138 · worth 55¢ (-2¢ after the 2¢ fee)
59¢
Dplus KIA wins
vol24 10,126 · worth 43¢ (-1¢ after the 2¢ fee)
42¢
T1 wins map 2
vol24 12 · worth 55¢ (+1¢ after the 2¢ fee)
56¢
T1 wins map 1
vol24 5 · worth 55¢ (+1¢ after the 2¢ fee)
56¢
ODDIK wins map 2
vol24 6,373 · worth 36¢ (0¢ after the 2¢ fee)
34¢
“Worth” is what settled sports markets in the same price band actually paid, with Kalshi’s taker fee already deducted. It is a statement about this kind of contract, not a forecast of this particular game: a band average does not know that your quarterback is injured. Markets we cannot price honestly say so rather than being quietly filled with a guess. Full method on the Fair Value Board.

What an esports price has actually been worth

Every settled esports market we recorded a pre-match price for, grouped by that price. 1,826 observations and counting.

Price paidImpliedActually wonGapSample
10-19c15%19.2%+4.278
20-29c25%27.5%+2.5138
30-39c35%36.2%+1.2254
40-49c45%42.6%-2.4462
50-59c55%54.9%-0.1350
60-69c65%57.9%-7.1261
70-79c75%68.7%-6.3147
80-89c85%81.8%-3.288
90-99c95%90.3%-4.731
Read the grey gaps as zero. A gap is only coloured when it is bigger than the fee you would pay at that price, because an edge smaller than the fee is not an edge, it is a donation with extra steps. That single rule is why this table is shorter on claims than most of the internet.
The fan tax

Backing your org, every match, at whatever the price is, has cost about 5.6¢ per contract on this exchange.

Measured, not moralised: across 877 settled esports markets priced 50¢ and up, buying blind paid the price-versus-reality gap (3.7¢) plus the average taker fee (1.9¢) on every contract. That is the cost of the habit, in cents, before the first pistol round. Three ways to shrink it without loving your org any less: rest a limit order instead of hitting the ask (the fee on a filled resting order is zero), check the price against the record first with the free checker, and when you do buy, size it like an estimate rather than a certainty, which the checker now does for you. Loyalty is free at match start. It only costs money at the ask.

The thing a sportsbook will not let you do

Four legs in, one to go? Do not sweat it. Lock it.

On a sportsbook, a parlay with four legs home and one to go is a coin flip you are forced to watch. On an exchange it is not: you can bet against your own last leg and walk away a winner whichever way it lands. Almost nobody does, and most take the discounted cash-out instead. We compute the exact hedge, and the exact amount the cash-out is short-changing you.

Grade my combo, free →Why did my last one lose? →
Working out a specific sports trade rather than browsing? These do the arithmetic:
Kalshi parlay calculator
See the combined odds and payout of stacking multiple Kalshi contracts.
Kalshi fee calculator
Estimate the trading fee on any Kalshi order.
Kalshi odds converter
Convert a Kalshi price to probability and betting odds.
Free, no signup, and nothing you type leaves your browser. Every calculator →

Common questions

Are Kalshi esports markets accurate?
We measure it rather than guess. We record the price of an esports market before the match, archive what it settled at, and join the two. The curve on this page shows what each price band actually settled at across our record. Esports crowds are thinner than NFL crowds, so expect rougher prices: more noise, and more genuine mispricings for whoever checks before buying.
Can I bet on CS2, League of Legends, or Valorant on Kalshi?
Kalshi lists event contracts on major esports matches and tournaments across titles like CS2, League of Legends, Dota 2, and Valorant. Listings follow the competitive calendar, so the board is thick on tournament weekends and thin between them. Search any team on our free checker to see what is live right now.
What does Kalshi charge on an esports trade?
The taker fee is roughly 7 percent of price times one-minus-price, rounded up to the next cent, peaking near 50c. Resting orders that get filled pay no fee at all. In a thin market that is doubly important: crossing a wide spread AND paying the fee is how a good read still loses money.
Can I parlay esports matches on Kalshi?
Not as a native product, but you can build the equivalent by holding several contracts at once, and unlike a sportsbook parlay you can exit any leg at any time. Our combo builder grades the ticket against measured reality and computes the hedge that locks profit when most legs have landed.
Is trading esports markets on Kalshi legal?
Kalshi is a CFTC-regulated exchange and its event contracts trade on that basis. The legal picture for event contracts has been contested and keeps moving, so treat any single claim as a snapshot rather than settled law, and check your own state.
Deeper: the full esports calibration page, the fee study, the raw data if you would rather check our work than take our word for it, and the sports desk and the economics desk for the same treatment of different markets.