People with deep convictions about whether Brett Kavanaugh should – or should not – be confirmed to the nation’s highest court will have their eyes glued to Senate testimony Thursday. But another group of folks will also be fixated on the proceedings: those who might have a financial stake in the outcome.

The online political market PredictIt has been accepting “trades” on the odds of Kavanaugh getting a set number of "Yea" votes during his confirmation. He needs at least 51 votes to take a seat at the Supreme Court.

Hours before Thursday’s hearing involving testimony from Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, one of his accusers, you’d pay 45 cents to buy “Yes” on Kavanaugh getting 49 votes or fewer (by Oct. 31), or 57 cents to buy “No.” If you already owned those shares, you could sell “Yes” for 43 cents, or sell “No” for 55 cents.

The latest price overall on the likelihood of 49 Yes votes was at 43 cents, down 6 cents from the day before. If the prediction comes true, PredictIt will redeem all Yes shares at $1. Shares in No will have zero value. Conversely, if this prediction does not come true, PredictIt will redeem all No shares at $1, and shares in Yes will have zero value.

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PredictIt was born out of a project at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand. The site allows you to make predictions about various political events or elections – besides Kavanaugh, the odds of whether the Democrats or Republicans will control the House or Senate, for example – by buying shares in the outcome, either Yes or No. Each outcome has a real time probability between 1 and 99 percent, converted into U.S. cents.

The latest price is determined by the most recent trade made between two players. As PredictIt explains, very often, players will want to buy or sell shares at a price slightly better for them, usually a cent or two, than the most recent trade.

On Thursday morning, if you were betting on Kavanaugh getting exactly the 51 votes he needs to get confirmed, you could buy a “Yes” share for 23 cents. If you thought just the opposite, a “No” share fetched 78 cents. Meanwhile, the Yes or No selling prices were 22 cents and 77 cents, respectively. And overall the latest 51-vote selling price was valued at 24 cents, no change from the previous day.

Of course, you can also bet on Kavanaugh getting, say, 52 Yes votes or 53 Yes votes and so on, all the way up to 60 or more, a share of which is currently valued at just a penny.

Incidentally, if it turns out that no vote is taken on Kavanaugh’s nomination – should President Donald Trump, say, withdraw his nomination – that will be considered a “Yes” outcome for people who bet on 49 votes or less.

As you might expect, the odds have been bouncing around all week, especially as new allegations against Kavanaugh have surfaced.

“Given the nature of this event, and the amount of new information that has come to light throughout the confirmation process, forecasting the outcome has been a moving target,” says Will Jennings, the head of public engagement at PredictIt. “There are few comparisons for considering the odds on something like this. This is not like forecasting an election where you have a lot of historical data to base your projections on.”

As for PredictIt trades for political outcomes, the price for a Yes share on Trump getting impeached during his first term in office is at 45 cents, compared to 55 cents for a No on the same question.

The likelihood that Republicans will control the Senate after 2018 is at 72 cents versus 33 cents for Democrats. But in the House race, however, the Democrats are at 70 cents and the GOP at 35 cents.

It will be fascinating to watch how PredictIt shares might move as Ford and Kavanaugh testify and in the immediate aftermath.

Email: ebaig@usatoday.com; Follow USA TODAY Personal Tech Columnist @edbaig on Twitter