In the cutthroat world of sports betting, the house almost always wins — until now. Amit Mahensaria, former Ripple executive and founder of PRED, is on a mission to flip the entire game.
Instead of betting against a greedy sportsbook that bans winners, PRED lets traders compete peer-to-peer on a lightning-fast blockchain exchange built on Base.
With sub-second trade execution, instant withdrawals, and even native yield on deposits, PRED isn’t just another prediction market — it’s purpose-built for serious sports traders.
In this exclusive interview, Amit breaks down why the old model is broken, how blockchain finally makes fair betting possible, and what the next decade holds for sports prediction markets.
1. What advantages does peer-to-peer sports outcome trading offer for sports punters compared to traditional sportsbooks?
The core difference is who you’re trading against. On a sportsbook, you’re trading against the house. The house sets the price, the house is your counterparty, and the house has every incentive to limit or ban you if you start winning consistently. That’s the business model. Profitable customers are bad customers.
On an exchange, traders match against each other. Pred facilitates the market and takes a small commission on trades. We have no position against our users. If you’re a winning trader, that’s good for the market. More skilled participants mean tighter spreads and better price discovery for everyone.
That’s why we say Winners Welcome. It’s not a slogan. It’s a structural feature of how an exchange works versus how a sportsbook works.
2. How does blockchain assist in fair payouts for players? Why did you choose Base?
Blockchain gives us transparent, on-chain settlement. Every trade, every payout is verifiable. There’s no back office deciding whether to process your withdrawal.
We chose Base because we needed infrastructure that could handle the speed sports markets’ demand. We’re executing trades in 200 milliseconds.
Base gives us that performance with low transaction costs, and being part of the Coinbase ecosystem matters. Coinbase Ventures is one of our backers. The alignment between our infrastructure choices and our investor ecosystem is intentional.
3. What methods & crypto currencies are preferred by customers?
Currently, users can deposit in USDC, which makes sense given that it’s the leading stablecoin and most actively used in the Coinbase ecosystem. The real challenge for the industry isn’t which crypto people prefer.
It’s making the on-ramp simple enough that a trader who wants to take a position on tonight’s match isn’t spending 20 minutes figuring out how to fund their account. That’s where we focus a lot of our product work.
4. Are clients more drawn to sports betting platforms with instant withdrawals?
It’s not just that traders prefer instant withdrawals. It’s that delayed withdrawals are a tool sportsbooks use to manage their exposure to winning players. Slow payouts, verification loops, and account reviews. These aren’t security features. They’re friction designed to discourage profitable traders from staying on the platform.
On Pred, your funds are yours. You withdraw when you want. There’s no review process triggered by the fact that you’re winning. That’s a direct consequence of the exchange model. We’re not on the other side of your trades, so we have no reason to make it harder for you to take your money out.
5. How do you see the convergence between blockchain and prediction markets playing out in the next decade?
I’ve spent 22 years in sports trading, and what I’m seeing now is the infrastructure finally catching up to what professional traders have always wanted. Real-time execution, transparent settlement, global liquidity pools that aren’t fragmented by jurisdiction.
The convergence that matters most to me is sports-specific.
General prediction markets are interesting, but sports markets have unique requirements: sub-second execution, continuous price updates during live events, and the ability to handle massive volume spikes at kickoff or tip-off. That’s a different engineering problem than predicting an election outcome six months from now.
The next decade will be about building exchange infrastructure purpose-built for sports, not adapting general-purpose tools and hoping they hold up under match-day load.
6. How else does your P2P sports prediction exchange stand out from the competition? Can you tell us more about the native yield feature?
Two broad things separate us from general-purpose prediction markets like Polymarket.
Firstly, speed across the platform: in trading experience, in market creation and in resolutions. Live sports move at a very fast pace, and the platform is designed for 200ms trading execution; it is the difference between capturing that price movement in a live match or watching it pass. Our matching engine is purpose-built for that tempo.
Similarly, sports resolutions on PRED happen within a couple of minutes and not hours or days, enabling users to celebrate their winnings and trade the next match; ask any user how important this is.
Second, there are more and more markets. Polymarket has 25 sub-markets in a match, whereas Stake has 500! Sports users love a variety of markets around an event.
Rather than just who will win or what the score will be, sports fans want to predict and benefit from their deep insight into multiple trivia. We only think about sports day in and day out, and will better innovate on markets than general-purpose prediction markets.
Native yield is a feature where deposits, as well as positions on Pred, earn yield while sitting in your account. Your capital works for you even when you’re not actively trading. For serious traders who keep a balance on the platform, that changes the economics of where you choose to park your funds.
Successful Players Take Full Control Of Their Bankroll
The future of sports trading isn’t about hoping the bookmaker doesn’t limit your account — it’s about removing the stingy bookmaker entirely. Amit Mahensaria and the PRED team are proving that a faster, fairer, and more transparent alternative is not only possible — it’s already here.
Winners are not only welcome… they’re actually rewarded. Whether you’re a sharp sports trader tired of restrictions or someone who just wants a better, more honest way to engage with the games you love, platforms like PRED represent exactly where the industry is headed.
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