This week: Prediction market funding rolls on with Onyx Odds' $20M Series A

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Prediction market funding rolls on with Onyx Odds' $20M Series A

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.

Adjacent raises $2.5M pre-seed to build independent prediction market index provider

The news: Adjacent has raised a $2.5M pre-seed to build the first independent index provider for prediction markets and event contracts. Backers include Night Capital, VanEck, UFO Holdings, Maven11, and DCG. The company launched its first index family (US political party control) with two indices tracking forward expectations on Republican and Democratic outcomes across all levels of office.

Zoom in: The core problem Adjacent is solving is fragmentation: the same event can be listed across ten different platforms with inconsistent rules and no standardization. Adjacent positions itself as a neutral calculating agent, publishing methodology through a public governance portal and targeting thematic, categorical, and return-based indices across global elections, financials, and economics.

Why it matters: Prediction markets are maturing fast, but the infrastructure layer is still catching up. Institutional capital looking to hedge event-driven risk has had no clean passive exposure product to reach for—Adjacent is making a direct play at that gap. If indexing takes hold here the way it has in traditional finance, it could meaningfully change how capital flows into the space.

SpeedLabs wants to make every game tell a different story—and bet on it

The news: SpeedLabs founder Nick Meader joined the BettingStartups Podcast following the company's $6.5M seed round last month, led by Parlay Capital Holdings—the same firm that led PrizePicks' seed—with participation from Bullpen Capital and BettingStartups Capital. SpeedLabs builds momentum markets: live, in-game betting propositions generated in real time by models tracking what's unfolding on the field, priced on operator-defined timeframes of five, 10, or 15 minutes.

Zoom in: The product's core premise is that standard micro bets are set before the game with the same menu regardless of what's happening—SpeedLabs' models identify narrative threads in real time and build markets around them. "Every game is different," Meader told BettingStartups. "Every game tells a different story, but the betting markets on all of them are the same, no matter what the sport is."

Why it matters: Momentum markets are a direct challenge to the default live betting product—player props and micro bets that don't move with the game's narrative. SpeedLabs is betting that prediction market operators will move faster than traditional sportsbooks on adoption, and is pairing its B2B push with a consumer game slated for a fall launch. If the thesis holds, the company wants to be the live layer every operator is running by the time Sunday night football means something again.

Hear more from Nick on what SpeedLabs is building on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.

News, money, and alpha 🗞️

• SBC Summit's First Pitch Competition is accepting startup applications to pitch at its Lisbon event on October 1, with five finalists competing for a prize package valued at €80,000+. Applications close July 25. Apply now.

• Zero Labs is opening applications for Cohort 9 of its Casino & Gaming Innovation Launchpad, running September 25–27 in Las Vegas for early-stage founders building for gaming, hospitality, and adjacent systems. Apply here.

• THNDR has named former WorldWinner CEO Nancy MacIntyre as a strategic advisor to help bring more operators onto its skill games network.

Great gigs 💼

Big opportunities with awesome growth-stage companies, brought to you by BettingJobs.

• 🆕Splash Sports is hiring a Senior Growth Analyst to own attribution end-to-end — building models and reporting across a 2M+ user base. Remote. (View job)

• 🆕PredictEX is seeking a Marketing & Business Development hire to own growth strategy, paid acquisition, and partnerships at an institutional-grade sports and prediction markets derivatives exchange. New York (hybrid considered). (View job)

• Outlier is hiring a Product Marketing Manager to own positioning, GTM strategy, and product launches for a subscription-based sports betting analytics platform. Remote (USA). (View job)

From the studio 🎙️

Catch up on the latest episodes of The BettingStartups Podcast.

• Turning sports narratives into "momentum markets" w/ Nick Meader from SpeedLabs

• Childhood games with adult stakes w/ Jackson Erminio from Spina

• Unpacking WagerWire's new prediction market license w/ Travis Geiger

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