News forecasting game Hubdub (DEMO 08) today announced its partnering with the popular news Web site The Huffington Post so its readers can predict what they believe will unfold during the U.S. presidential election campagins and the outcomes of other thousands of news events from hurricanes to business controversies.
“From day one we’ve always wanted the Hubdub market information to sit beside high quality news content," said Nigel Eccles, CEO and co-founder of Hubdub Ltd. of Scotland. Projecting market forecasts out to news sites means that prediction markets are becoming more mainstream and easier for casual (Web) browsers to appreciate."
Eccles believes that predicition markets can be more agile than polls in getting a sense of people's attitudes to news events in real time. Hubdub has 10,000 registered users and about 4,000 are active during any given month, Eccles said.
On each of The Huffington Post’s tag pages, a page that pulls together all information about a specific subject, there's a Hubdub Current Forecast widget that lists current reader predictions about a particular topic. For example, U.S. vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s tag page includes Hubdub forecasts about whether she’ll pull out of the presidential ticket (16% chance) and whether she will mention Alaska’s proximity to Russia as evidence of her national security experience (38% chance).
Hubdub users challenge each other and trade forecasts. Forecasts update automatically when the Hubdub "market" moves.
“We think our news obsessed users will get a kick out of Hubdub’s fun forecasting feature,” said Mario Ruiz, vice president of media relations for The Huffington Post.
