Every prediction on Polymarket is structured around two core concepts: markets and events. Understanding how they relate is essential for building on the platform.
Markets
A market is the fundamental tradable unit on Polymarket. Each market represents a single binary question with Yes/No outcomes.
Every market has:
| Identifier | Description |
|---|
| Condition ID | Unique identifier for the market’s condition in the CTF contracts |
| Question ID | Hash of the market question used for resolution |
| Token IDs | ERC1155 token IDs used for trading on the CLOB — one for Yes, one for No |
Markets can only be traded via the CLOB if enableOrderBook is true. Some
markets may exist onchain but not be available for order book trading.
Market Example
A simple market might be:
“Will Bitcoin reach $150,000 by December 2026?”
This creates two outcome tokens:
- Yes token - Redeemable for
$1 if Bitcoin reaches $150k
- No token - Redeemable for
$1 if Bitcoin doesn’t reach $100k
Events
An event is a container that groups one or more related markets together. Events provide organizational structure and enable multi-outcome predictions.
Single-Market Events
When an event contains just one market, it creates a simple market pair. The event and market are essentially equivalent.
Event: Will Bitcoin reach $100,000 by December 2024?
└── Market: Will Bitcoin reach $100,000 by December 2024? (Yes/No)
Multi-Market Events
When an event contains two or more markets, it creates a grouped market pair. This enables mutually exclusive multi-outcome predictions.
Event: Who will win the 2024 Presidential Election?
├── Market: Donald Trump? (Yes/No)
├── Market: Joe Biden? (Yes/No)
├── Market: Kamala Harris? (Yes/No)
└── Market: Other? (Yes/No)
Identifying Markets
Every market and event has a unique slug that appears in the Polymarket URL:
https://polymarket.com/event/fed-decision-in-october
└── slug: fed-decision-in-october
# Fetch event by slug
curl "https://gamma-api.polymarket.com/events?slug=fed-decision-in-october"
Sports Markets
Specifically for sports markets, outstanding limit orders are automatically cancelled once the game begins, clearing the order book at the official start time. However, game start times can shift — if a game starts earlier than scheduled, orders may not be cleared in time. Always monitor your orders closely around game start times.
Next Steps
