{"document_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smarkets"}
Smarkets is a UK-based betting exchange company founded in 2008. It has offices in London, Los Angeles, and Malta.

History

Smarkets was founded in 2008 by Jason Trost and Hunter Morris as a peer-to-peer platform that allowed its users to bet on various sports and political markets.

Smarkets became Queens Park Rangers F.C.'s front-of-shirt sponsor in June 2016, and in January 2018, announced that it was working with The Jockey Club to sponsor 35 race days in the 2018 calendar.

Smarkets was named the City A.M. Leap 100 Company of the Year for 2017, and came second on the 2017 Sunday Times Tech Track 100 list.

Salary culture

The company notably initiated a wiki-like salary policy; the employees could view salaries of all of their peers, including the company CEO, on an internal wiki page. The company has a self-set salary policy, which authorises employees to decide their own salary as often as every six months. This process is similar to a peer-review process carried out at designated times during the year.

Political predication markets

During the 2020 US presidential election, Smarkets was one of a number of companies that carried political prediction markets that provided live odds during the campaign and while the vote was still being counted. The company's final Electoral College forecast on election day notably outperformed the leading poll-aggregation models.