Mexican Soccer Federation Sues Kalshi Over Liga MX Trademark Use
FMF wants a US court to stop Kalshi from using Liga MX and club names on its prediction markets, after months of cease-and-desist letters.
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited by the ON360 newsroom.
Mexico’s national soccer federation has taken prediction market operator Kalshi to a US federal court over its use of Liga MX trademarks. The Mexican Football Federation, known as FMF, filed suit in the Southern District of New York on September 22, according to Gambling Insider. FMF wants a temporary restraining order, injunctions, and damages tied to what it calls unauthorized use of its league and club names.
Months of warnings before the lawsuit
The dispute traces back to July 17, when FMF general counsel Rafael García Job sent Kalshi a cease-and-desist letter demanding it stop using the Liga MX logo, club logos and other protected marks. Kalshi responded four days later, arguing its use qualified as nominative fair use. It removed some logos and added disclaimers, but kept the Liga MX and club names on its markets.
Kalshi general counsel Richard Heaslip then told FMF the matter was “closed,” according to the complaint. FMF disagreed and sent a follow-up letter on July 27. Kalshi’s head of litigation, Jovalin Dedaj, replied on August 6, again citing nominative fair use and describing the company’s approach as “plain-text identification” for markets regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
FMF retained law firm Blank Rome LLP, which sent a further cease-and-desist letter on August 18, giving Kalshi 10 business days to comply. Kalshi rejected FMF’s position again on September 1. Three weeks later, FMF filed suit.
Data use also at issue
Beyond branding, FMF’s complaint takes aim at how Kalshi settles its Liga MX markets. “Kalshi’s market rules designate FMF’s data as the facts that determine whether a wager wins or loses,” the filing states. FMF says it never authorized Kalshi to use its data, trademark or club names for that purpose.
Kalshi has defended its practice by comparing it to how investment firms name products after companies they track. The complaint quotes Kalshi’s September 1 response, which likened its use of the Liga MX mark to “investment companies such as Vanguard and JP Morgan using the Apple trademark to identify stock investments.”
FMF pushes back on that comparison. It notes Kalshi already avoids other trademarks elsewhere on its platform, labelling Major League Baseball as “Pro Baseball,” the Super Bowl as “Pro Football Champion” or “The Big Game,” and UFC contests simply as “MMA.” Kalshi counters that Liga MX poses a different problem, since several Mexican cities field clubs across multiple professional divisions, making a city name alone insufficient to identify which team a market covers.
A pattern with sports bodies
This is not the first time a sports governing body has challenged Kalshi’s naming conventions. Earlier this year, the NCAA objected to Kalshi’s use of “March Madness,” “Sweet Sixteen” and “Final Four,” along with phrasing suggesting an “Outcome verified from NCAA.” Kalshi complied without a court fight, switching to generic labels such as “Men’s College Basketball Champion.”
Kalshi has not made a similar concession to FMF. The lawsuit lands while the exchange is already fighting state regulators across the United States over whether its federally regulated sports event contracts can be treated as sports betting under state law. The case now adds a trademark front to that ongoing legal fight, testing how far a prediction market can go in naming the leagues and clubs its contracts track.
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