About this app
About Magic Oak
Unlike regulated sportsbooks, prediction markets allow customers between the ages of 18 and 21 to trade on sports-event contracts. Craig Carton, a sports talk host with WFAN 660 AM in New York, criticised the athletes for their endorsement of Polymarket. Carton, a recovering compulsive gambler, opined that the “unregulated” gambling markets are driving Americans into bankruptcy and kids out of school. Regulated books prohibit those under 21 from betting on their platform, leading Carton to question the celebrities for promoting the company.
“At what point does someone come along where you say no to the offer?” Carton asked.
A Bank of America study released on 1 September found that the median deposit account balance of households that participated in online betting was 59% higher than households that avoided the activity. As prediction markets rapidly expand alongside traditional sports betting, the findings have prompted “some to blur the lines between entertainment and investment”, according to a proprietary study undertaken by BofA.
What is Magic Oak?
Our tip: Alexandre Lacazette to score and Arsenal to win (17/10)
Leicester City vs. Slavia Prague (Agg 0-0) (8pm GMT kick-off)
Even more finely balanced is this last 32 clash between the surprise package of this season’s Premier League and a side who crashed out of the Champions League at the Qualifying Round stage, losing 4-1 to Midtjylland. That came after a 0-0 first leg result back in Prague and having lost Tomáš Souček and Vladimír Coufal to West Ham in 2020, Slavia look a shadow of their former selves.
How to play Magic Oak
There’s widespread belief that old guard media companies are incentivized to feature event contract data on their sites or reference it in select publications as a way of better connecting with younger readers and viewers.
Then there are the financial implications, namely new revenue streams. Prediction market operators typically pay media companies to integrate their data while some outlets also earn referral commissions for driving new business to yes/no exchanges.
At least one well-known cable network has a financial stake in a major prediction market operator.
