About this app
What is Cornelius?
One day before a primetime showdown between the University of Mississippi and Louisiana State University, the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana announced the launch of a tribal prediction market app. The new app, powered by Kalshi, will be launched through SaltTrade Derivatives, a newly established subdivision of a tribal-owned enterprise.
Through the collaboration, the tribe will draw upon Kalshi’s established infrastructure and market expertise to develop a distinct tribal-owned trading application, said Tunica-Biloxi Chairman Marshall Pierite in a statement.
“This partnership represents exactly the type of opportunity Indian Country should be pursuing, where Tribes are owners, innovators and leaders, not just participants,” he said. “For generations, the Tunica-Biloxi people have adapted, traded and built relationships that allowed our Nation to prosper. This initiative carries that tradition into the modern economy.”
How to play Cornelius
In an op-ed for the Chicago Tribune in June, Grasso complained that “some members of the Chicago news media stigmatize Italian Americans as Outfit members or mafia operatives whenever it serves to embellish a story.”
Federal prosecutors, however, do not mention the mafia in court documents. They allege the gambling ring generated millions of dollars through illegal sports betting, video gambling, and loansharking operations, with members using intimidation and violence—or the threat of it—to collect debts.
Rovito’s past criminal record includes convictions for aggravated criminal sexual assault and possession of a controlled substance.
What is Cornelius?
The US addressable market is vastly larger and customer recruitment remains strong. Marantelli says Kalshi increased its number of clients fivefold during the World Cup, while White Swan predicts that NFL prediction markets could generate between $5 billion and $7 billion of liability in a single week.
But he acknowledges the possibility that faster customer losses could eventually test the sustainability of the model.
“They lose quicker, dry up quicker, recruitment or re-recruitment,” he says. “If the recruitment of players dries up, then what are you going to do? Definitely there can be components like that.”
