Kalshi Liga MX Trademark Lawsuit: 268 Markets Still Open

Kalshi was sued over its use of the Liga MX trademark on September 22, 2026 by the Federación Mexicana de Fútbol, in Manhattan federal court, and the markets at the centre of the case are still open. Our sweep of the exchange at 03:05 UTC on September 24 counted 19 Liga MX series, 52 events and 268 open contracts, covering games on September 25, 26 and 27 plus season-long bets on both 2026-27 championships, against the 13 markets one published report described. Nothing on the court docket could close them this week: no motion for a restraining order, no order to show cause and no expedited hearing.

The case is Federacion Mexicana De Futbol Asociacion, A.C. v. Kalshi Inc., No. 1:26-cv-08259, in the Southern District of New York. The clerk records the cause as "15:1114 Trademark Infringement (Lanham Act)" and the nature of suit as "840 Trademark". Judge J. Paul Oetken has it, with Magistrate Judge Katharine H. Parker designated, and the plaintiff has demanded a jury.

What is on the docket, and what is not?

Five numbered entries in two days, and none of them an emergency application.

The Southern District's own filing feed timestamps the case-opening notice at 13:18:22 GMT on September 23, the summonses at 13:21:02 and the pretrial conference order at 15:52:47. An initial pretrial conference order is the routine first step in an ordinary civil case, on a timetable measured in weeks. It almost certainly sets a date, and that is one more thing we cannot give you: entry 5 is behind the paywall like everything else here, so we can say a conference has been ordered and not when it falls. What is absent is the other kind of hearing, the one a plaintiff asks for in days rather than weeks.

Both published reports we could find say the federation asked for a temporary restraining order. We cannot confirm that from the record: the complaint sits behind PACER's paywall, no free copy exists, and its prayer for relief is not something we have read. What we can confirm is the distinction that decides whether the markets survive the weekend, which is that no separate motion for a restraining order or preliminary injunction has been docketed here.

What does the federation allege?

We are attributing this rather than asserting it, for the same reason. According to a report by ON360, the federation is seeking "a temporary restraining order, injunctions, and damages", says the marks at issue include the Liga MX logo, club logos and the league and club names, and sent cease-and-desist letters on July 17, July 27 and August 18 through the law firm Blank Rome LLP. The same report says Kalshi's position is that its use was nominative fair use and "plain-text identification" in markets regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and that it likened the practice to investment firms naming products after the companies they track.

A second report, by Gaming.net, gives the federation's seat as Toluca, Estado de México and names Martin Simon Krezalek of Blank Rome as the lawyer who filed the complaint, which the docket independently confirms. It also counts the Liga MX offering at 13 markets, "nine individual games, three futures and one league-leader market", and that count is the one part of either report we can check against the exchange. It is low, for the reason set out below. Neither report is a substitute for the complaint, and nothing above has been tested in court.

Are the Liga MX markets still trading?

Yes, and we swept the whole exchange rather than taking anyone's word for it, which is how we found the reporting undercounts this badly. Gaming.net put the platform's Liga MX offering at 13 markets. Paging every open event on Kalshi on September 24 returned 19 separate Liga MX series carrying 52 events and 268 open contracts.

The match markets are the smallest part of it. The game-winner series KXLIGAMXGAME holds nine fixtures and 27 contracts:

1. September 25: Atlante vs Monterrey, Tijuana de Caliente vs Atlas
2. September 26: Cruz Azul vs Toluca, Guadalajara vs Queretaro, Santos Laguna vs Pachuca, Tigres vs Puebla
3. September 27: Pumas UNAM vs San Luis, Leon vs Juarez, Necaxa vs America

Around those sit spreads, totals, both-teams-to-score, correct score, first-team-to-score and half-by-half versions of most of them. Six series carry the league's name in the product title Kalshi publishes: "Liga MX Game", "Liga MX Total", "Liga MX Winner", "Liga MX BTTS", "Liga MX Top Finishers" and "Liga MX Leader".

The season-long markets are the ones the match-day framing misses. "Liga MX Apertura Champion" and "Liga MX Clausura Champion" carry 36 contracts between them on the 2026-27 seasons, "Liga MX Apertura Top 8 Finishers" 18 more, and "Liga MX Apertura Golden Boot" another 16. Those run for months, not to Sunday, so a rename or delisting would reach a good deal further than this weekend's fixtures.

Every one of the 52 events carries the metadata field "competition": "Liga MX", and the settlement rules name the clubs in plain text: one market resolves on "the Necaxa vs America professional Liga MX soccer game originally scheduled for Sep 27, 2026".

Then there is the disclaimer, and it is not on everything. Most of these markets carry the same line word for word: "Kalshi is not affiliated, associated, authorized, endorsed by, or in any way officially connected with the Governing League. All trademarks, logos, and brand names are the property of their respective owners." But 66 of the 268 open contracts do not carry it at all, while still naming the league and the clubs in their settlement rules. The gap is not random: it is every market in the correct-score, first-half correct-score, team-total, first-team-to-score and half-by-half spread, total and both-teams-to-score series. ON360 reports Kalshi defending its use of the marks as "nominative fair use" and "plain-text identification"; on a quarter of its own live Liga MX book, the plain text arrives without the disclaimer attached.

Settlement sources vary by series and none of them is the federation. The game series lists ESPN and Fox Sports; others add Sky Sports, CBS Sports and NBC Sports, and one settles on FIFA. ON360 reports the complaint saying Kalshi's rules "designate FMF's data as the facts that determine whether a wager wins or loses", and we cannot reconcile that with any published source list we read without reading the document. The game series record was last updated at 22:15:55 UTC on September 22, the day the case was filed, and we draw no conclusion from that timestamp.

How does this compare with Kalshi's other lawsuits?

Prediction markets are where readers get pointed when a sweeps casino leaves their state, one of the 51 covered by our state legality matrix, and the legal pressure on them is arriving from several directions at once. Kalshi appealed its Iowa loss to the Eighth Circuit without seeking a stay, Connecticut's suit against it is being fought over remand, Montana settled its enforcement action by stipulation, a tribe's IGRA case against it is stayed for a Seventh Circuit appeal, and in the same state as this case the CFTC ordered it to keep trading while the New York attorney general sued.

A trademark claim is a different animal. It does not ask whether the product is legal, the question our guide to sweepstakes casino legality deals with, only whether the branding is allowed, and it can be settled by a rename. Set against the money questions on that platform, such as the trader suing over a withdrawal freeze, a naming fight is the smaller risk to a balance. Our ranked sweepstakes casinos are a separate market with separate rules, and how we verify court and operator claims explains why we will not describe a complaint we have not read.

Sources & documents

• Federacion Mexicana De Futbol Asociacion, A.C. v. Kalshi Inc., No. 1:26-cv-08259 (S.D.N.Y.) - the caption, both defendants, the Lanham Act cause, nature of suit, judge, magistrate, jury demand and all five entries, read September 24, 2026
• Southern District of New York public filing feed - the three GMT timestamps for September 23, 2026
• Kalshi series record for KXLIGAMXGAME - the "Liga MX Game" title, the ESPN and Fox Sports settlement sources and the September 22 last-updated timestamp
• Kalshi open events for KXLIGAMXGAME - the nine fixtures and the "competition": "Liga MX" metadata
• Kalshi open markets for KXLIGAMXGAME - the 27 open game-winner markets, the club-naming settlement rules and the affiliation disclaimer on each one
• Kalshi open-events sweep, all series - paged in full on September 24, 2026: 14,048 open events, of which 52 across 19 series carry "competition": "Liga MX". Per-series market calls against the same API returned 268 open contracts, six series titled with the league name, and the 66 contracts in the correct-score, first-half correct-score, team-total, first-team-to-score and half-by-half series that carry no affiliation disclaimer
• Kalshi soccer game-win contract terms - the contract the series is issued under
• ON360, "Mexican Soccer Federation Sues Kalshi Over Liga MX Trademark Use" - published September 23, 2026, the source of the relief reported, the marks, the three cease-and-desist dates, Kalshi's reported position and the NCAA comparison
• Gaming.net, "Mexican Football Federation Files Trademark Lawsuit Against Kalshi" - published September 23, 2026, the source of the federation's seat, plaintiff's counsel, and the 13-market count our own sweep contradicts

21+ only. If gambling stops being fun, call 1-800-GAMBLER or read our responsible gaming resources.