# Overview Pitchcast is a prediction market protocol. Users take positions on binary outcomes tied to football events, and prices reflect the collective probability estimate of the crowd at any given moment. The mechanics are derived from established financial primitives: binary options, limit order books, and collateralised token pairs. What Pitchcast adds is a protocol layer that makes these primitives permissionless, on-chain, and purpose-built for football. ## The core loop 1. A market is created for a binary football event, such as "Will Arsenal win against Chelsea on Saturday?" 2. Users buy YES or NO shares at a price between $0.00 and $1.00, where the price reflects implied probability 3. Prices update in real time as new information arrives and positions are traded 4. When the event concludes, the oracle resolves the market to either YES or NO 5. Winning share holders redeem their shares for $1.00 USDC each; losing shares expire worthless The total collateral in any market is always exactly equal to the number of YES shares in circulation (which always equals the number of NO shares). The market is zero-sum between the two sides. ## Key concepts * [Binary Markets](/how-it-works/binary-markets.md): how YES and NO shares work and what they represent * [Price as Probability](/how-it-works/price-as-probability.md): why a share price is a direct probability estimate * [Collateral Mechanics](/how-it-works/collateral-mechanics.md): mint, redeem, and settle operations --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://docs.pitchcast.xyz/how-it-works.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.