One of the most hotly contested presidential elections in decades is entering it's final phase.

Who's going to win?

Stacy Johnson has an unlikely source of information and perhaps profit, providing you're willing to put your money where your mouth is.

As Campaign 2008 approaches the finish line, we're all looking for signs that we're backing the right horse.

Which is why polling organizations exist: these guys handicap the election by asking people how they're going to vote.

The fact is that people who put their money where their mouth is, in other words, bettors, may, in fact, be more accurate in predicting the outcome of elections.

If you look at polls run during the election and we've looked at about 600 polls, what we found is 75% of the cases, the Iowa market prices predict the actual vote share of the election better than polls.

The professor is talking about a low-stakes trading market that the University of Iowa has sponsored for years.

Participants can wager from 5 to $500 in winner-take-all futures markets in everything from political races to box office receipts.

Primary purpose? Giving students the ultimate incentive to learn.

Bottom line is when it comes to predicting the outcome of some events, bettors may outperform some pollsters. But why shouldn't they be? After all, they're putting their money where their vote is.

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