What is a 'prediction market' in Economics?

This refers to any market platform where investors speculate on the probability of a future event or outcome. Prediction markets have been created to forecast elections, the weather, consumer demand, and a number of other things that are normally hard to predict. Instruments that are linked to various future outcomes are issued in these markets and openly traded by investors. The predictions of these markets are considered to be more reliable than the opinion of experts because investors are willing to bet real money to back their personal opinion. In fact, prediction markets have been empirically shown to be more reliable predictors of the future.