Prediction Markets with Alex Johnson

I am obsessed with prediction markets! 

But maybe not for the same reasons as you. 

I am obsessed with how quickly they have grown, how they seem to be on track to disrupt the gambling industry entirely in no short order, and how they seem to have evaded appropriate regulatory oversight.

An alarming stat: we know that when a state legalizes online sports betting, bankruptcy rates increase by 25-30% over the next 3 to 4 years, and so to me, the fact we’ve found a way to avoid state gambling regulation is… worrying to say the least.

Are we creating a whole generation of gamblers? Have we found a way to avoid gambling regulation? Is it simply another tool through which the rich get richer and the poor get poorer?

To understand more about prediction markets I begged Alex Johnson, founder of Fintech Takes, to chat to me. He’s the fountain of much knowledge, and like me, is pretty obsessed with what’s happening here. This episode is a cracker, and we covered so much, including:

→ What prediction markets are and how they work

→ The regulatory landscape they exist within, and that which they’ve managed to avoid

→ Where their volumes come from - what kind of predictions are being made?

→ Some pretty suspect behaviours linked to politics and predictions on these markets

→ How Robinhood and others are starting to present prediction markets as an investment opportunity