Jason Trost is founder and chief executive of Smarkets. As one of the world’s largest betting exchanges, the company simplifies peer-to-peer betting on hundreds of markets daily. With more than 200,000 customers trading billions of pounds annually, it is one of the fastest-growing companies in Europe. Prior to co-founding Smarkets, Jason worked in the global asset management division at UBS, designing and implementing proprietary software to assist in one of the world’s largest hedge fund trading operations. In this in-depth conversation, Jason discusses why sports betting is a “zero-line game”, describes how computer algorithms can flag customers with potential gambling addictions to offer help, and reveals how the company’s prediction markets offer one of the most sophisticated tools for tracking live probabilities for general elections.
