[This post is filed in the "humor" category, of course. 
]
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Take a look at the blogroll of the NewsFutures blog, which cites everybody but BetFair:
Recent Posts
UC Riverside’s eLab eXchange : featuring Competitive Forecasting and Idea Pageants
Demise of a Sarko Killer
Results of the Dutch Political Stock Market
Los Angeles conference on collective intelligence networks
Washington DC conference on prediction marketsBlogroll
Markets Powered By NewsFutures
Davos Global Risks
eLab eXchange
NewsFutures Exchange
Yahoo! Tech Buzz GameNewsFutures
Other Public Prediction Markets of Note
Frankly, I do believe that BetFair, the world’s #1 betting exchange, is “of note”, because of its great liquidity.
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Now, seriously, let’s re-read Mike Giberson’s take:
BetFair gives every impression of being a success at sports betting, but sports betting generally doesn’t generate a lot of U.S. press unless corruption of some sort is involved. (And, by the way, BetFair was mentioned in U.S. media in conjunction with the ATP match-fixing suspicions.)
Does BetFair have a Ron Paul contract? I can’t find the political markets on www.betfair.com. Ah, click on “BetFair Sports” scroll down through the list of “All Markets”, and there lies “Politics” between “Rugby League” and “Poker.” Select “USA,” select “Republican candidates.” Aha! There he is at “24” in decimal odds (or, alternately, at 23/1 standard odds). A quick calculation indicates an implied 4.1 percent chance of receiving the GOP nomination.
I suspect American reporters (1) find it easier to locate the American political markets on Intrade, and (2) find prices directly interpretable as probabilities easier to report.
Also, the charts are hard to find (hidden as a link attached to the name, but the name is just black text against a white background and gives no indication that a chart and other information is available by clicking the name). If a reporter finds the market, clicks on the hidden link, and clicks the “Inverse Axis” box under the chart, then finally the reporter gets an easy-to-interpret implied probability chart.
While BetFair obviously works for experienced bettors, inexperienced visitors are given little help in discovering information that readily feeds into news stories. If BetFair wants the free publicity, it will need to be easier for reporters to get what they want.
