News prediction and gaming site Hubdub, which concentrates on US news, has secured $1.2m in a Series A funding from a cohort of UK VCs and angels. The investment gives Scotland-based HubDub a runway of 18-24 months to build up their content partner base. The site itself claims 250,000 unique visitors trading around 100,000 predictions per month, largely around US news items. However to base its future growth on its portal would be a mistake. The real story behind HubDub is it’s partner platform which turns any news site or blog into a news prediction market, thus generating many more page impressions than the average news site, which usually gets very fleeting attention. The site now has partners including Reuters, UK newspaper The Independent and the Huffington Post. Main US-based competitor The Industry Standard which launched in February last year, is experiencing lacklustre growth and concentrating on its in-house portal.