Edinburgh-based start-up is one of a growing number of "prediction market" community sites, which draws users from around the web to tout their knowledge and make predictions.
Because of its news aggregate style, the website has drawn comparisons to other social-news networks like Digg. Unlike Digg, or Reddit, Hubdub tracks only the stories that users decide are worth creating a betting market around.
The website has secured partnerships with Reuters and The Independent, who are featured on Hubdub's partner section and provide updates to questions pertaining to the day's breaking news. In return, Hubdub users send traffic back to the news sites.
So far 21,000 questions have been asked by the site's 13,000 users, ranging from the current popular "Where will Russell Brand next get a full-time job?" to "When will the next breach of confidential data occur?"
In the politics section, 14% of Hubdub users are betting that Scotland will become an independent state by 2010.
In total, over 800,000 bets made for more than 2m "Hubdub dollars" are traded daily.
New users get 1,000 Hubdub dollars to start betting on a variety of topics. The leading Hubdub user has accumulated 3.7m Hubdub dollars so far.
The website has been running in the US for the past nine months.
Lesley Eccles, one of the founders of Hubdub, said: "It's great to be launching in the UK, despite the recession.
"People are going to be looking for free entertainment and will turn to the web to find it.
"Hubdub is free, exciting and keeps you informed. News sites are looking to engage and interact further with their readers and Hubdub gives them a fantastic means to do so."
_1.jpg)
.jpg)
