Intrade Co-Founder Brings Back TradeSports Prediction Market Platform

Originally debuting as TradeSports, the now defunct Intrade is being reincarnated using the original branding strategy.

Intrade Co-founder Ron Bernstein is starting a test phase for his company on Monday (April 14, 2014).

“Sports are always going to be the best laboratory for prediction markets,” he says. “All those things now are just recorded and data-mined and discussed.”

For nearly a decade Intrade was the gold standard in prediction market wagering but the Irish-based company got into hot water with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission in late 2012.  That Commission claimed the Intrade exchange illegally enabled speculation on the value of gold and currencies and on the probability of acts of war.

Bernstein is looking to capitalize on the US legalization of fantasy sports.

Joshua Brustein of BusinessWeek.com explains:

Contests on Tradesports will consist of a series of markets, where players buy stock based on events within a game. To not run afoul of the law, players cannot simply buy stock on whether the San Antonio Spurs will win; the position must also include a bet on, say, how many rebounds Tim Duncan will pull down. A pot is set in advance, and the stocks can be traded throughout the game. When the final buzzer sounds, players holding stock with the highest combined value win the pot. The company takes a cut of the entry fees.

Sounds good but can Brustein regain the trust of traders?

Though Brustein left the company many years ago, another co-founder, John Delaney, he had been diverting money from the company into personal accounts prior to his death while climbing Mount Everest in 2011.  Most of that money was returned by the Delaney family.  Still, the legal action is ongoing.

Unlike other fantasy sports sites, TradeSports will be taking bets on such events as the Oscars and US Presidential races.

- Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.com