The news: Onyx Odds, a social sports prediction platform, raised a $20M Series A led by Payward (the parent company behind Kraken) at a $220M valuation, less than a year after coming out of beta. The platform enables users to engage with sports outcomes through exchange-traded instruments, offering a market-driven alternative to traditional sports participation.

Zoom in: As part of the deal, Onyx Odds will integrate with Payward Services to run its prediction markets offering on Payward’s licensed US derivatives stack and embed crypto trading inside the Onyx app. “This investment marks a major milestone for Onyx Odds and validates the strength of both our platform and our vision,” said founder and CEO Leul Dadi.

Why it matters: Investor appetite for prediction markets shows no signs of slowing. Just in the last six months: Novig raised a $75M Series B; Pumpcade closed a $5M seed just weeks after its pre-seed; XO Market raised $6M to build the “YouTube of prediction markets”; Elastics snared a $2M pre-seed for its AI agents, and much more. Onyx Odds landing a $220M valuation on less than $8M in prior funding is further confirmation that early-stage capital is chasing outsized returns in the category.

Like what you see? SUBSCRIBE to BettingStartups to access the full article!