1. Platform taxonomy

We do not rank non-comparable products in a single list. Every platform we cover is classified into exactly one of these categories, and platforms are only ranked against peers in the same category:

• Regulated US exchanges. CFTC-registered Designated Contract Markets offering event contracts to US persons.
• Broker & app distribution products. US-facing apps or brokers that route orders to a regulated exchange.
• Sports exchange and adjacent products. Peer-to-peer sports and daily-fantasy hybrids operating under state gaming regimes.
• Forecasting communities. Non-monetary or reputation-based prediction platforms.
• International & onchain platforms. Offshore or blockchain-native venues not offered to US retail users.

2. Scoring model

Every rating is a weighted composite of five subscores on a 0–5 scale. The overall rating displayed on a review is computed from the subscores — editors cannot set the overall rating directly.

1. Regulation (30%). Registration status with the CFTC, FinCEN, state regulators or foreign equivalents; enforcement history; compliance posture; segregated customer funds.
2. Market breadth (20%). Number and diversity of active contracts across politics, economics, sports, crypto, weather, science and culture.
3. Fees (15%). Trading fees, deposit and withdrawal costs, funding rate charges and typical effective spread paid by retail users during our testing window.
4. Liquidity (15%). Median order-book depth on flagship markets and the notional size that can be moved without moving the price more than 1 cent.
5. Experience (20%). Onboarding, KYC, web and mobile UX, charting, API quality, customer support responsiveness and platform reliability during the review period.

Weights are reviewed annually. Any change to weights forces a full recomputation of every published rating.

3. Testing procedure

For each review cycle we:

1. Open or re-verify a real account and complete KYC end-to-end.
2. Fund the account and place at least ten live trades of varying size across at least three market categories.
3. Sample the top ten most active markets and record spread, depth and fill quality over three trading sessions.
4. Submit at least one support ticket and record time-to-first-response and resolution.
5. Withdraw funds using every supported rail and record fees, hold times and any friction.

4. Update cycle

• Every published review is re-tested at least every 6 months.
• Any material change to fees, regulation, ownership or product triggers an immediate re-review regardless of cycle.
• Availability and legal-status claims tied to a regulator source are refreshed on a 12-month cycle at minimum; press citations on a 6-month cycle.
• The "Updated" date on a page reflects the most recent recorded editorial change — not a mechanical rebuild or scheduled scan.

5. Evidence standards

Every legally sensitive claim on the site — regulator status, license or registration, availability by jurisdiction, "regulated" / "legal" / "licensed" adjectives — must cite at least one primary source. Accepted source types, in order of preference:

1. Regulator record (CFTC, SEC, FinCEN, state gaming commission).
2. Court filing or judgment.
3. Platform terms of service, prospectus or official rulebook.
4. On-record statement from the operator with a named spokesperson.
5. Reporting from a named journalist at a mainstream outlet.

Each source record stores title, publisher, URL, publication date, date accessed and source type, and is rendered in a Sources section on every public page.

6. Commercial independence

• Rankings, ratings and recommendations are set by editorial staff alone. Commercial partners have no input into scores and do not preview them.
• Affiliate revenue does not alter placement, ranking or content of a review.
• Members of the HunchMarkets editorial team may not hold material positions on any platform they cover, and disclose any potential conflict at the point of publication.

7. Corrections

We correct material errors prominently and record the change in the page's edit history. To report an error email corrections@hunchmarkets.com with the URL, the specific claim and any supporting sources. We aim to acknowledge every correction request within two business days.