Prediction markets allow you to speculate on many things today - from the success of the iPhone to the next US President. Knowing these things in advance can lead to riches - or at least extreme smugness.
To get you started with this under-rated form of social software, here’s a selection of sites that let you bet on outcomes and see what the community as a whole thinks will happen. Gambling laws mean you can’t necessarily win money, but many sites offer prizes, points and other perks. Not to mention the fact that you can take your newfound knowledge to the real stock market.
1. Websites
Urladex takes advantage of Alexa data and allows you to predict the popularity of websites. This will be of interest to you if you follow Alexa or think you know web sites well in general. If a site increases in rank, it will increase in value. So go out and find the next big site and make some money! Play money, that is.
2. Blogs
Blogs are becoming ever so popular nowadays. Their traffic can rival some of the best news sites on the web. If you want to make predictions on weblogs, then Blogshares is sure to please. Recent upgrades to the site and the servers provide you with an even better experience.
3. Videos
VideoIPO takes Internet videos and puts them head to head. Your goal in this game is to find the best videos on the Internet before others do. If you do this correctly, you are rewarded with play money.
4. Technology
For high tech geeks everywhere, Yahoo gives us the Buzz Game. Think of it as a stock market for technology. In this game you can buy and sell shares of popular tech products and services and see if you can make the best predictions to come out on top.
5. Movies
The Hollywood Stock Exchange is just the ticket for all you movie and entertainment fanatics. You can bet on actors, movies and more. Feel free to give Transformers some love, and Paris Hilton the cold shoulder.
6. Stocks
If you are interested in some serious stock market action, then this Investopedia Simulator is for you. It’s as close to real life as you can get without risking real money. You can get data for all US stocks that is only 20 minutes behind. A great tool for the future investor in you.
Also in this category: PredictWallStreet. As the name implies, this allows you to make predictions on US stock markets. Your ability to correctly determine if a particular market will go up or down will determine your ranking and score within the game.
7. Sports
Wagerline allows you to predict scores of sports events and make bets on those events. Sports betting for fun, essentially.
Also great for sports fans: PicksPal. This site provides most of the functions that you would see in a regular sports betting site. It鈥檚 completely free and most major sports are included.
8. Media
MediaPredict allows you to make predictions on many forms of media. From bands to movies and beyond, you can make bets on the whole media landscape.
9. Amazon Items
Smarkets takes items from Amazon and allows you to predict their popularity. The worth of each product on the site is determined by its Amazon rank. We’re getting a few errors today, but it was previously pretty slick.
10. Video Games
Pushing current technology to the bleeding edge and spurring on new technological advances, the simExchange gives you the opportunity to make predictions on video game industry.
11. Words
Trendio is a prediction market that allows you to trade words based on their popularity in search engines. Your gains and losses depend on the popularity of the word . “iPhone” should be your first purchase, although you may already be too late!
Free Bonuses!
Foresight Exchange is a prediction market that allows you to predict all kinds of outcomes: it’s not focused like other sites, and it acts in a similar fashion to a stock exchange.
Inkling takes on various speculative topics. There is not really a specified topic, but the standout feature is that you can also create your own games to play with friends, coworkers, and others. In essence, it’s a “build you own prediction market” tool.