Trisha Shetty (Editor)

PredictIt

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Type of site
  
Prediction market

Website
  
www.predictit.org

Registration
  
Required for trading

Slogan(s)
  
Let's Play Politics

Commercial
  
No

Owner
  
Victoria University of Wellington

PredictIt is a New Zealand-based prediction market that offers prediction exchanges on political and financial events. PredictIt is owned and operated by Victoria University of Wellington with support from Aristotle, Inc. The market was launched on November 3, 2014. PredictIt's office is located in Washington, D.C.

Contents

History

PredictIt was launched on November 3, 2014. By March 26 the website had approximately 29,000 active traders. During the 2016 United States elections, PredictIt, along with other prediction market websites, received attention from various media outlets.

How it works

PredictIt uses a continuous double auction to sell shares for each event in its markets, meaning that for every person who predicts that an event will take place, there must be another person who predicts that it will not. The site groups related predictions into a market.

Rules and limits

Victoria University of Wellington secured a no-action letter from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, reducing the risk of prosecution for illegal online gambling. In order to secure the no-action letter, each question is limited to 5,000 traders, and there is an $850 cap on individual investments per question. These restrictions are modeled after the Iowa Electronic Markets, which previously secured a no-action letter from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission; however, there are differences in the restrictions between the two markets. Federal approval aside, the site is not allowing participation from residents in 2 states with particularly strict laws on gaming and gambling: Nevada and Washington.

Research

PredictIt offers a Research Data Sharing program for professors. PredictIt has over 50 university partnerships. Some universities include Harvard University, Yale University, and University of Pennsylvania.

References

PredictIt Wikipedia