WASHINGTON, March 20, 2007 — Slate, the daily online magazine, has launched a 2008 Political Futures Database, which utilizes data from three prediction markets to forecast the outcome of 2008 Presidential and Congressional races.
Slate's Washington, D.C. Editor David Plotz describes political futures this way: "The thrill of prediction markets for political junkies is that they harness 'the wisdom of crowds.' A single person's bet on an election outcome isn't very good, but thousands of bets, with real stakes, are more likely to predict the correct result than even the best pundit. The Iowa Electronic Markets, the big daddy of the political prediction markets, is consistently better at forecasting winners than pre-election polls." The idea behind Slate's political futures database is that if a single prediction market tends to be more accurate than the pundits and the polls, then compiling the prediction markets together creates an even more precise calculation. From now until Election Day 2008, Slate will publish hourly updates of the key data from Iowa Electronic Markets, Intrade.com, and Casualobserver.net, beginning with the Republican and Democratic Presidential primary races and later adding 2008 Congressional races.
For more on how to read the Political Futures charts, click here: http://specials.slate.com/futures/2008/
About Slate Magazine:
Slate Magazine is an award-winning Web site that offers fresh angles on stories in the news and innovative entertainment coverage. Slate won the 2006 and 2005 EPpy awards for Best Internet News Service (over 1 million monthly visitors) and the 2005 EPpy award for Best Internet Entertainment Service (over 1 million monthly visitors). Slate can be found on the Web at www.slate.com and is owned by The Washington Post Company. Slate attracts over five million unique visitors each month.
####
Media Contact:
Kris Coratti
Slate Magazine
Office: 703-469-2763
Kris.Coratti@wpni.com
© The Washington Post Company