Everything you want to know.

Sidepool is a private prediction market for friend groups. Create a pool for any event — a bachelor party, game day, a night out — post Yes/No questions, and let friends bet on what happens. No money moves through the app. It tracks who owes who at the end, and you settle on Venmo.

Sign up, tap "Create Pool," give it a name, set an optional buy-in cap, and share the invite link with your group. You'll be the commissioner — you run the game.

Your friend will send you an invite link or a short code. Tap it, create an account (or log in if you already have one), and you're in. That's it.

The app is completely free. Bets are between you and your friends — Sidepool just keeps score. The only money that changes hands is when you settle up with your group at the end.

Yes, but only if you have no open bets, positions, or pending offers. Cancel or wait for your bets to resolve first. Your history in resolved markets is preserved after you leave.

The commissioner is the person who creates the pool. They write the bet questions, decide when markets open and close, and call the results. To keep things fair, the commissioner can't place bets themselves — they're the referee, not a player — unless they've opted in to betting in their own pool (see below).

It depends on the pool. When creating a pool, the commissioner can choose to allow themselves to bet. If they do, the rake is automatically set to 0% and all members see a notice when they join. The commissioner still resolves markets, so bet accordingly.

An optional limit on how much any one person can have at stake across all open bets in the pool. The commissioner sets it when creating the pool. If someone tries to place a bet that would push them over the cap, the app blocks it. Set it to prevent anyone from going overboard.

Every bet is a Yes/No question. You buy a "Yes" or "No" share at a price between 1¢ and 99¢. If you're right, your share pays out $1.00. If you're wrong, you lose your stake. The price reflects what the group thinks the odds are — 60¢ means roughly a 60% chance.

The price is the implied probability. A Yes share at 60¢ means the market thinks there's a 60% chance it happens. If it resolves Yes, you collect $1.00 and net +40¢ profit. If it resolves No, you lose your 60¢. The price shifts in real time as friends pile in on either side.

When you buy Yes at a price, you're matched against someone who's willing to sell at that price (i.e., someone buying No at the complementary price). The app finds the best available match automatically. If there's no match yet, your order sits on the book until someone takes the other side.

Yes — you can offer a cash-out to any other member in the pool. Set the shares and price you want, send the offer, and they can accept, reject, or counter. Both sides have to agree before anything changes hands.

Simple View shows bets in plain language — "Bet $5 to Win $5." Detailed View shows the underlying exchange data — shares, prices, and order books. Simple View is the default. If you want the full trading view, you can switch at the bottom of the pool page.

When you enter "Bet $2 to Win $2.50," the system rounds to the nearest valid bet. You'll see the exact adjusted amounts before you confirm — no surprises. Round-dollar bets at common odds (even money, 2:1, 3:1) usually land exactly on what you entered.

Instead of Yes/No, the commissioner can post a question with multiple options — like "Who will score best at golf?" with a list of names. You stake money on the option you think will win.

Everyone's stakes go into a shared pot. When the commissioner picks the winner, the pot is split proportionally among everyone who staked on the winning option. If you staked $10 out of $25 total on the winner, and the total pot is $100, you get $40 back — a $30 profit.

Yes. In a Multiple Choice market, the payout depends on how many people stake and on which options. Your estimated winnings update in real time as more bets come in. Your final payout is locked when the commissioner resolves the market.

Yes. You can hedge by staking on more than one option. Your Stakes section shows what you'd win (or lose) for each possible outcome.

Once the commissioner resolves all markets, the app calculates each member's net: how much they won minus how much they lost. It then simplifies that into the minimum number of transfers — "Alice owes Bob $12, Charlie owes Dana $8." You take that list and settle on Venmo or Cash App.

Never. Sidepool is a ledger — it tracks bets and calculates who owes who. No money flows through the app. All payments happen directly between friends, off-app. There's no bank account, no escrow, nothing like that.

Commissioners can optionally take a small cut (default 1%) of net winnings as a fee for running the game. Only members who come out ahead pay it, and it's deducted before the final settlement math. The rake can be set to 0% if the commissioner wants to run it for free.

If the commissioner voids a market, all positions in that market are cancelled and no one owes anything on it. No rake is charged. Any matched bets are unwound as if they never happened.

Sidepool is a scorekeeper for friendly wagers — it doesn't take custody of money, process payments, or operate as a gambling platform. That said, social betting laws vary by location. We recommend using it the way people use friendly wagers: among people you trust, for stakes everyone's comfortable with. Use responsibly.

No download required. Sidepool is a web app — just open the link on any phone or computer. It's designed to load fast and feel native on mobile, but it runs entirely in the browser.

If you can turn it into a Yes/No question, you can bet on it. Weddings, bachelor parties, nights out, golf rounds, road trips, game days, fantasy drafts, concerts — anything where your friend group has opinions and you want to put a little something behind them.