Prediction markets are running up the score on sportsbooks at the World Cup
Cheng Xin/Getty Images Betting interest is at a fever pitch as the World Cup plays out across North America. Prediction markets have been crushing traditional sportsbooks in terms of user activity. Detailed below are three charts that show the dominance in action. When it comes to watching soccer, no one wants to see a tie. But you know what makes a tie more palatable? Making money betting on it to happen. (Have I implemented this strategy to spice up my own World Cup viewing? No comment.) It's the type of mindset that's been increasingly pervading the sports-watching experience, with sportsbook apps and prediction markets giving people access to a seemingly unlimited number of betting opportunities. But under the surface of the global gambling monolith is a divide developing between traditional sportsbooks and the prediction-market companies currently eating their lunch. The World Cup has only made that wedge more pronounced. In a previous edition of First Trade, I unpacked th...
