Second Thunder

About Second Thunder

For Kambi, data must be combined with the knowledge of experienced traders who can direct the technology, scrutinise its output and identify where it can add value next.

“You don’t have to search high and low in this industry to find companies talking up the benefits of AI,” Lamb adds. “Realising them requires a combination of deep data and human expertise not everyone has access to, and there is no shortcut to acquiring.”

The World Cup proved Kambi’s AI could perform under the greatest pressure sports betting can provide. The next task is to turn that tournament performance into new, increasingly on-demand experiences for its partners and their customers.

What is Second Thunder?

The company has also pursued partnerships outside the normal financial media. Its deals include relationships with major sports organizations and entertainment properties, signaling efforts to integrate prediction markets into mainstream content and information services. 

The conclusion of the Yahoo Finance deal comes as there is more talk about the use of prediction market data in journalism. Operators such as Polymarket and rival Kalshi have touted their markets as a way to get real-time information on how likely future events are to occur. 

However, some media industry observers have questioned whether trading activity can reliably stand in for broader public opinion. There are also concerns among critics over the growing links between news organizations and prediction platforms. 

How to play Second Thunder

Just eight years after the state of New Jersey successfully petitioned the US Supreme Court to repeal the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, which opened the floodgates of sports betting expansion across the country, the Garden State has again petitioned the high court, this time to defend its sports betting jurisdiction against the rise of prediction markets and sports event contracts.

On Wednesday, New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport announced that her office had filed a petition for writ of certiorari following an appeals court verdict from earlier this year that went in favour of prediction markets. That 2-1 verdict from the Third Circuit Court of Appeals was handed down in April, and New Jersey had until Thursday to petition the high court.

The petition poses the question of whether the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which was enacted in 2010 in the aftermath of the Great Recession, “preempted states from regulating sports bets that occur within their jurisdictions if those bets are offered on markets registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission”. Prediction markets have argued that their event contracts are financial derivatives regulated by the CFTC whereas many states contend that they are simply sports bets by another name.