Mercury’s Blog

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If you haven’t already read about it on the Prediction Market Google Group, or read the Midas Oracle post, the Prediction Market Industry Association was born during the London Prediction market conference on October 11-12th. The full press release can be found at the Prediction Market Industry Association website at http://www.pmindustry.org.

I am really excited about this development in the prediction market industry. In our discussions at the conference, we really wanted to create a community, accountable to its membership, that promoted and educated

the wider public on prediction markets. The site will have a directory of vendors, academics and their research, public prediction markets, and eventually a searchable, live database of contracts across the various public markets. This last feature will allow anyone to search for contracts on a given topic, and find current prices across the spectrum of markets. A user could compare prices (and then trade) on, for example, a Barack Obama democratic nomination contract on the Washington Stock Exchange, Newsfutures, InTrade, Inkling, and more. Some other contracts might have an even more world-wide appeal, with contracts on exchanges developed by Nosco or Pro:kons.

None of this means competition in the prediction market industry will be easing anytime soon. To me it means that all of us interested in prediction markets will be working together to “grow the pie” of the marketplace.

Finally, I was honored to be voted in as one of the first members of the Board of Directors. If you have any questions or concerns about the PMIA, please feel free to contact me. I look forward to sharing more news on the PMIA with you here in the future!