What is a prediction market?
In short
A prediction market is a market where each share pays $1 if an outcome happens and $0 if it doesn't. The share price, from 1¢ to 99¢, reads as the crowd's probability: 30¢ means about a 30% chance.
How the price works
Every market has two sides, such as Yes and No, or Over and Under. The two prices add up to about $1. If Yes trades at 62¢, No trades near 38¢.
Because a right share always pays $1, buying at 62¢ returns about 1.6x, and buying at 5¢ returns about 20x. Cheap sides pay more because they are less likely.
Who runs them
Venues like Polymarket and Kalshi list thousands of markets on sport, crypto prices, economics and culture. Prices move every second as traders react to news, scores and charts.
How RIPS uses them
RIPS does not run an order book. It bundles live markets into packs: you rip a pack, get 3 to 10 positions at their current price, then hold them to the result or cash out at the live price.