A new entrant to the prediction markets space has arrived with a concept that fundamentally separates forecasting from financial risk.
SafeBets, founded by Alex Konanykhin, allows users to make predictions without placing any wager, turning the standard model of prediction platforms on its head.
The platform scores every forecast against real-world outcomes, building verified track records for users and rewarding those who demonstrate the most consistent accuracy over time.
Konanykhin argues that the core appeal of prediction markets has always been misunderstood by operators and regulators alike, who assume financial risk is what drives engagement.
“People assume risk is what makes prediction compelling. It is not. What makes it compelling is the desire to be right, and to be recognized for it,” Konanykhin said.
He believes the industry has long bundled together two distinct activities, prediction and wagering, and that separating them changes the entire regulatory conversation around these products.
“Once you accept that prediction and wagering are two different things the industry happened to bundle together, most of the regulatory debate starts to look different,” Konanykhin explained.
His case to regulators is deliberately simple: “Ask one question. Can a user lose money on this platform? On a betting product, the answer is yes, by design. On SafeBets, the answer is no, because the user never puts money down in the first place.”
The regulatory environment for prediction markets globally is increasingly hostile, with authorities in Portugal, the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Ukraine, and Romania all taking action against platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket.
Gibraltar stands as a notable outlier, having licensed two prediction markets so far, but the broader European picture remains largely unwelcoming to the emerging technology.
In the United States, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and state regulators are locked in ongoing legal battles over whether prediction products fall under financial or gambling jurisdiction.
Konanykhin believes this turf war is largely irrelevant to SafeBets, since a platform with no wagering mechanic does not compete for the same regulatory classification as its rivals.
“Our SafeBets.world sits outside that fight. A platform where no one wagers is not competing for the same customer or the same regulatory lane, so it can coexist with all of them,” he said.
He also sees a vast untapped audience that traditional sportsbooks and wager-based prediction platforms simply cannot reach, people who enjoy testing their judgment but will never place a financial bet.
“We tap the same human impulse as Kalshi and Polymarket, the urge to predict, but we use the opposite mechanic,” Konanykhin concluded, positioning SafeBets as a genuinely distinct category within the broader predictions space.
