Morgan Stanley has become a strategic partner for the NEXTPredict summit, scheduled for October 22 and 23 in New York. The bank will lead a panel on institutional capital, marking the first time a major bank has publicly associated itself with an initiative in the prediction market sector. Stephen Grambling, the bank's head of U.S. gaming, lodging, and leisure research, will head the discussion on market structure, risks, and institutional opportunities.
The industry is currently seeing high valuations, with Kalshi reportedly valued at $40 billion and Polymarket at $20 billion, while DraftKings holds a market capitalization of approximately $13 billion. Currently, about 90% of liquidity in these markets is tied to sports contracts. Industry participants aim to shift this toward institutional hedging tools, allowing businesses to mitigate risks that conventional financial instruments cannot cover.
Morgan Stanley previously participated in Kalshi's $1 billion Series F funding round in May, which valued the exchange at $22 billion. The bank's wealth management division has also published research on the sector, including an August study by Counterpoint Global that analyzed over 72 million trades on Kalshi to evaluate forecasting accuracy. Banks are currently awaiting further regulatory clarity before increasing their involvement.
The upcoming NEXTPredict summit will feature 91 speakers across five stages, with organizers expecting approximately 2,500 attendees. While other institutions like JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs have expressed interest in the space, Morgan Stanley is the first to formalize its involvement through a public-facing partnership. The event will focus on the evolution of prediction markets from gambling-adjacent platforms to institutional tools.
