Prediction market round-up
Jed Christiansen at Mercury Research & Consulting has just posted an excellent and comprehensive listing of the many and varied prediction market companies and software solutions available today - a great resource and jumping off point for anyone wanting to research this emerging phenomenon. Although I think I understand why, I was surprised not to see Betfair listed: clearly for anyone in the UK interested in this space they will have already heard of it and it is perhaps not exactly a “prediction market” at least not in the same genre as many of the companies listed, nonetheless in other ways it is the shining success among outcome exchanges and especially in the US (due to Betfair’s strict adherence to US law) is not necessarily known or understood by everyone.
In any event, well done Jed for making this mini-survey available to all.
November 23rd, 2007 at 1:06 pm
Hello, Sean, and thank you for the kind review.
You’re correct in that I specifically excluded Betfair. I tried to make a comprehensive listing of prediction market software that companies could license for internal use. Even if Betfair were willing to do so, their technology is clearly overkill, and thus I excluded it.
Additionally, I tried to show why some public “prediction markets” aren’t really markets; they’re just voting mechanisms which is certainly different.
Betfair is really the shining example of all public marketplaces… superior technology, great team, good interface, and good PR. If only the average US bettor knew what they were missing by not having Betfair!
Regards,
Jed