
If you are curious about Polymarket odds, then the first thing you should know is that this is a misnomer. Polymarket is not a gambling platform, so it does not have odds, just the chances of a yes/no outcome.
In this guide, we’ll cover how this all works at Polymarket prediction markets, so you know what to expect when you take a look yourself. You’ll see the different event categories you can make predictions for, such as sports and political markets, and how you can get started as soon as you are ready.
First things first, as Polymarket is not a gambling platform, there are no odds here, but that’s not the whole story. Polymarket is probably the best-known prediction market platform after Kalshi, and buyers buy and sell binary outcome contracts regarding the likelihood of an event happening. Users can either buy a yes or no contract, and the price of these contracts fluctuates according to how the event is progressing, with the winning contracts paying $1 and the losing contracts paying $0
For example, a ‘yes’ contract that Seattle will win the Super Bowl might be trading at $0.12, which means that the overall market thinks they have a 12% chance of winning. As the season progresses, this might fluctuate according to results as the season goes on, so a $0.12 might be worth $0.20 by Thanksgiving, meaning the market thinks its chance has increased to 20%, or poor results might see the market view their chances at just 5%, and the contacts now being worth just 5c each.
So, while Polymarket does not have odds, the chances of either a yes or a no result will fluctuate in accordance with real events, meaning there is a profit to be made by buying and selling these contracts using desktop site or the Polymarket app while the events are in motion, rather than waiting for things to resolve in a straight win or lose result.
Before you can do any of this, you’ll need to sign up with Polymarket, so we’ll quickly take you through what happens there:
Ensure Polymarket is legal where you are
Use the links on this page to go straight to Polymarket
Register and make your deposit in USDC
Browse the available categories
Open a market, pick yes/no, and decide how many contracts you wish to buy
Hold on until the market resolves or trade out to lock in a profit or mitigate a loss.
You’ll notice that the first step here is to check that Polymarket is legal where you are, as Polymarket has faced regulatory scrutiny historically. Currently, since being authorized by the CTFC, Polymarket is 100% legit in the US, but as with any regulatory situation, it can change over time. Always check the small print before using a Polymarket referral code or signing up.
Now you know how to read the yes/no chances for any event, it’s time to look at the different categories you can make predictions in. These are purely for illustration purposes and are not intended to reflect any real events.
| Table | example outcomes |
|---|---|
| Politics | Will Candidate X win State Y in the 2026 midterms? |
| Crypto / Blockchain | Will ETH close the year above $4,000? |
| Sports | Will Seattle win the Super Bowl? |
| Economics | Will the unemployment rate be above 4.5 by the end of the year? |
| Business | Will company ‘X’ share price go above ‘Y’ in Q2? |
| Entertainment | Will "Wicked: For Good" win the Best Picture Oscar? |
| Weather | Will the temperature in Chicago drop below 20 degrees in January? |
| Science | Will Elon Musk launch another rocket in 2026? |
| Public Figures | Will Elon Musk tweet more than 250 times in December? |
Correct predictions will be paid at $1 per contract, with no Polymarket fees, and losing predictions will be worth nothing.
With the rising popularity of prediction markets, there is bound to be some confusion about how it all works. After reading this guide, you will know there are no Polymarket odds, just chances that the yes or no selection you have made will be correct. This is because Polymarket is not a gambling platform but a trading platform; you can trade as these probabilities change, meaning you can sell before the event resolves if you are happy with the way the market has moved in the meantime. This makes it attractive to plenty of users, and you can see it in action for yourself by using the links on this page.
Polymarket does not have odds - it is not a gambling platform. You buy contracts on the outcomes of real-world events, and the chances of it either being ‘yes’ or ‘no’ change as that event progresses. This could be in sport, science, or a number of other categories.
Polymarket users buy and sell YES/NO contracts for real-life events. Prices fluctuate as the event progresses, so they can be bought and sold before the event resolves for a profit or loss, or held onto to see if they win or lose.
Yes, this is one of the many available categories. You can buy a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ contract for questions like ‘Will Seattle win the Super Bowl?’ and other sporting events, with the price of those contracts varying according to what the overall market thinks.