Friday, April 29, 2022

I used each one, and here's my review of the most well-known prediction market dapps.

There are four prediction market dapps in the world (three of which work), and I will break out and rank them based on my experience using them. They're all non-custodial and allow you to bet in USDC.

❌ Augur 0/10

It doesn’t work. Their v1 failed, v2 failed, and their Augur Turbo/sportsbook has not had a single bet made in over 90 days. They briefly had a Matic grant and saw some very small volume. But since the grant ran out, they have not had anyone using their product.

I tried again to use it yesterday, but there is no one to bet against because there are no other users. The project is dead.

🥉 PoltX 5/10

This prediction market is heavily focused on short-term crypto price betting. You can bet on the price of over ten popular cryptos, which is nice, and there are always markets expiring soon. The max bets are quite small (about $20-$50 on most events) as liquidity seems to be offered only by one party. For sports betting, they only have Indian cricket with similar small limits.

The dapp is good for small bettors looking to bet on crypto prices or if you are a fan of Indian premier league cricket. The dapp is not suitable for whales, people looking to bet over $100 at a time, or general sports bettors.

🥈 Polymarket 8/10

This prediction market is focused on popular culture with markets spanning art, politics, and sports. Most of Polymarket’s betting options are long-dated, meaning they expire weeks or months in the future, and they have cool charts showing the price changes over time. The limits are pretty good on popular markets and often allow people to bet $1,000 without drastically moving the odds. Their sports coverage is not great and will normally include a handful of games each day with the option of choosing the winner.

The dapp is great for intellectually curious traders who want to bet on popular news stories like Elon’s acquisition of Twitter or the winner of the French elections. Their focus is on non-sports prediction markets. I believe it will continue as the market leader in pop culture betting.

🏆 SX Bet 9/10

SX Bet has the strongest sports betting offerings of any prediction market in crypto and – outside Betfair’s football soccer offering – probably the world. Out of the dapps listed here, they are the most popular by total betting volume. Likely, this is because they offer over 500 new markets each day. In contrast to Polymarket, SX Bet focuses on daily sports betting rather than long-dated pop culture markets. Their pop culture offerings are not great but do include Bitcoin and Ethereum price betting markets. One big advantage is that you earn SX tokens as you bet, converting users into platform owners.

While Polymarket is my go-to for pop culture, SX Bet is the best sports prediction market with high limits on North American sports ($25k+ max bets) and $5k max bets on European and Asian sporting events.

Tl;Dr

  • Augur is dead
  • PlotX is in beta, has small limits, and is regionally focused on India
  • Polymarket is the best option for pop culture and political betting markets
  • SX Bet is the best option for sports betting and the market leader by volume

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