The University of Illinois is developing its own prediction-market exchange to train students in event-contract trading and market-making, reflecting the growing importance of the industry in financial education and career preparation.
The iBlock Prediction Market, being built at the university’s Gies College of Business, will allow students to trade contracts using digital tokens rather than real money. Already in beta testing, the platform is expected to open to all Gies students in January 2027, with plans to eventually expand access across campus.
Students in the school’s Derivatives and Trading Academy will serve as market makers and proprietary traders, gaining practical experience in a sector where firms are increasingly investing in professional trading infrastructure.
Rich Excell is a clinical assistant professor of finance at Gies who directs the academy. In a Nov. 4 report published by Gies, he said he feels prediction markets represent an emerging career opportunity for students.
“Having our own prediction market in Gies will help our students differentiate themselves from other universities in two ways,” Excell said.
“First, this is a low-stakes way for students to get experience trading these types of markets, which are event contracts that trade differently than public markets. Second, Derivatives and Trading Academy students will get practical hands-on experience in market-making. There is no other way for a student to get this practical experience, and it sets them up well for careers in this field.”
Preparing students for prediction market careers
Excell said the idea grew out of conversations with contacts across the financial trading industry, where he saw growing investment in prediction markets and opportunities for future employment.
“I could see from my discussions with trading firms, market makers, prop traders — even investment banks and different parts of the trading world — that there was a lot of capital being directed toward prediction markets and new jobs,” Excell said in the Gies report.
The initiative builds on the university’s Derivatives and Trading Academy, launched in 2024, which offers a three-semester program combining classroom instruction with trading challenges and practical experience in derivatives and quantitative finance.
Sam Sathiaraj, a finance and data science senior and one of the students leading development of iBlock, said the academy’s approach allows students to acquire skills they might otherwise learn only after entering the workforce.
“You learn by doing it, you understand how risk management works, and you understand a lot of things people usually pick up in their first job, which puts you ahead of the curve,” Sathiaraj said.
From financial markets to a quarterback’s mullet
The platform is being developed by students working with the university’s Disruption Lab and Illini Blockchain, including Sathiaraj and Sahib Bedi, a finance and accounting junior who co-directs the lab’s strategic wing.
Students will be able to trade on everything from the S&P to campus-related events, including whether former Illinois quarterback Luke Altmyer, now with the Detroit Lions, will cut his signature mullet.
“The only people who can reasonably predict the theoretical probability of that happening are Luke Altmyer himself, and probably his barber,” Sathiaraj said.
“But I can make a personal estimate of what I think that is, and you can make a personal estimate of what you think that is … And the idea is that, as the number of these estimates keeps increasing, we get closer and closer to the theoretical probability of Luke Altmyer losing his mullet. That’s a really cool function of prediction markets and we thought applying that to stuff happening on campus was really interesting.”
The platform will also incorporate educational features designed to encourage informed trading. Students outside the Derivatives and Trading Academy will have to complete instructional videos to earn tokens before participating.
Discussion boards will allow participants to exchange ideas and explain their trading strategies, while badges and leaderboards will introduce a competitive element.
Illini Blockchain is handling the technical development, with the Disruption Lab maintaining the blockchain and academy students providing market-making and proprietary trading activity.
Academic prediction markets have a longer history
Excell suggested Illinois was breaking new ground among business schools, saying that Gies is now “the only school with a prediction market.”
However, the University of Iowa’s Tippie College of Business has operated the Iowa Electronic Markets since 1988, making it a pioneer in academic prediction markets decades before the emergence of Kalshi and Polymarket.
Unlike Illinois’ planned play-money platform, Iowa’s exchange allows participants to trade contracts using real money. It has long served as a research and teaching tool, particularly for studying how markets aggregate information to forecast election results.
Illinois’ approach reflects a different phase in the industry’s development, with the emphasis shifting from studying prediction markets as forecasting tools to preparing students for careers operating and trading on them.