How to Create a Prediction Market Platform Like Onyx Odds

You open a sports app. You do not bet against a house. You trade against other fans. The price moves in real time, just like a stock. That is the idea behind Onyx Odds, and you can build your own version faster than you think.

Prediction markets are having a breakout moment. Combined monthly volume on the two biggest platforms jumped from under 5 billion dollars in September 2025 to about 24 billion dollars by April 2026. Founders who move now can ride that wave.

Here is the good news. With a specialist prediction market platform development company like Opinios Labs, you can go live in about 60 days. This guide walks you through the market, the features, the tech stack, the cost, the timeline, and the rules you must follow. By the end, you will know how to create a prediction market platform like Onyx Odds.

What Is Onyx Odds and Why Is It Growing So Fast

Quick answer: Onyx Odds is a New York based social sports prediction platform where users trade on sports outcomes. It raised a 20 million dollar Series A in 2026 at a 220 million dollar valuation, less than a year after leaving beta.

Definition: a prediction market is a platform where people trade contracts on the outcome of real events.

Onyx Odds lets fans forecast sports results. Users play with virtual Onyx Coins in a sweepstakes style, free to play model. You pick a side, and the price shifts as others trade.

The platform also runs a regulated arm. A separate CFTC registered brokerage, Onyx Predictions LLC, handles the regulated event contract and crypto products. It is cleared through NinjaTrader, according to Casino.org, which adds a layer of trust.

The funding story shows how fast this space moves. Onyx raised a 20 million dollar Series A at a 220 million dollar valuation, under a year after beta, according to BusinessWire.

The round was led by Payward, the parent of Kraken, which will fold Onyx onto its licensed US derivatives stack. Founder and CEO Leul Dadi also struck a Polymarket tie up for sports event contracts.

Investors are circling the whole sector. Rival Novig raised a 75 million dollar Series B in the same window, per Betting Startups. That is a strong signal for anyone building now.

How Big Is the Prediction Market Right Now

Quick answer: Prediction markets went mainstream in 2025 and 2026. Combined monthly volume on the two leaders rose from under 5 billion dollars in September 2025 to about 24 billion dollars by April 2026.

Here is the growth curve that explains the rush. Combined monthly volume rose from under 5 billion dollars in September 2025 to about 24 billion dollars by April 2026, according to Pew Research Center. That is the clearest reason to act now.

Zoom out to the full year and the picture gets bigger.

• Global volume hit roughly 64 billion dollars in 2025, a jump of more than 400 percent from 2024, per Yahoo Finance.
• Total notional volume topped 44 billion dollars across major platforms, while active users grew from about 4,000 to over 600,000, reports Gambling Insider.
• Monthly open interest quadrupled from 3.3 billion to 13 billion dollars in 2025, according to Forbes.

The momentum carried into 2026. Combined volume climbed past 50 billion dollars in July 2026 before easing to 45.33 billion in August, per Datawallet. 

The market is still concentrated, which leaves room for focused challengers like Onyx Odds.         

• Kalshi logged about 39.7 billion dollars in trailing year volume and Polymarket about 36.2 billion to February 2026, according to CoinLaw.
• Kalshi held roughly 84 to 86 percent of combined weekly volume by early September 2026, per Bitrue.
• Daily records tell the same story, with Polymarket at 425 million dollars in February 2026 and Kalshi at 381.7 million in December 2025, reports Trade The Outcome.
• Kalshi now counts about 2 million monthly users against Polymarket’s roughly 630,000, per Exploding Topics.

Who trades on these platforms? A study of nearly 12,000 accounts shows that ordinary people, not just pros, make up the base, according to Pew Research Center.

The runway looks long. One forecast sees the sector reaching 95.5 billion dollars by 2035 at a 46.8 percent annual growth rate, according to Certuity.

Why Sports Leads Every Prediction Market

Quick answer: Sports is the biggest category by volume. It makes up about 80 percent of Kalshi volume and about 39 percent of Polymarket volume since July 2024. This is exactly the lane Onyx Odds plays in.

A sports first platform starts with a built in audience. Fans already follow scores, odds, and matchups every day. According to Pew Research Center, sports made up about 80 percent of Kalshi volume and 39 percent of Polymarket volume. That demand is why Onyx Odds picked sports as its home base.

Big events drive big spikes. Combined June 2026 volume reached 44.8 billion dollars, driven by World Cup markets, per MetaMask. A sports platform can plan launches and promotions around the sporting calendar.

Crypto and politics round out the top three. Crypto and politics together make up about 52 percent of Polymarket turnover, according to MetaMask. You can add these categories later, but sports gets you to market with the widest base.

Should You Build Your Own Platform or Partner With an Exchange

Quick answer: Building your own platform gives you full control of the brand, the data, and the revenue. Partnering ties you to someone else’s rules and margins.

Both paths can work. The right one depends on how much you want to own. Here is a simple side by side.

For ambitious founders, owning the asset usually wins. You control the roadmap, the economics, and the exit. If you want a deeper version of the build path, read how to build a platform like Coinbase.

Core Features of an Onyx Odds Style Prediction Platform

Quick answer: An Onyx Odds style platform needs an order book, back and lay trading, real time pricing, secure wallets, KYC, virtual currency support, and an admin panel.

Think of these as the must have building blocks. This is the same core you get in an Opinios Labs Polymarket clone development build.

Add AI to Stand Out From Onyx Odds

Quick answer: AI now powers market making, pricing, fraud checks, and outcome resolution. A new platform can launch smarter than the incumbents.

You do not have to copy Onyx Odds feature for feature. You can beat it with AI. Here is where AI earns its keep.

• AI market making keeps thin markets liquid around the clock, so users always find a price.
• AI pricing sharpens implied probability and spots mispriced markets before humans do.
• AI outcome resolution uses multi agent oracles to settle markets fast and fairly. For on chain resolution, an Augur markets clone shows how oracle based settlement works.
• AI fraud and risk detection flags odd betting patterns and protects your book.
• AI sentiment analytics reads news and social signals to price events early, and it is already a built in Opinios Labs feature.

The Technology Stack Behind the Platform

Quick answer: A prediction market platform runs on a Node.js backend, a React or Next.js frontend, MongoDB or MySQL, Redis for speed, and cloud hosting on AWS. The matching engine sits at the center.

The matching engine is the core

The matching engine is where trades happen. It uses price time priority. The best price trades first. Among equal prices, the earliest order fills first. The book lives in memory for speed, and the engine must handle race conditions so no trade slips through twice.

The real time layer keeps prices live

Prices must update the moment a trade lands. That means WebSockets, not page refreshes. Redis pub or sub pushes updates fast. Larger builds add Kafka or RabbitMQ to move messages at scale.

Databases carry the load in layers

Speed and safety need different tools. Redis holds the live order book. MongoDB or MySQL stores durable records like trades and balances. A cache layer sits in front to keep reads quick.

Payments, wallets, and data feeds

Money handling must be exact. An idempotent wallet service stops double spends. Audit trails and reconciliation keep the books clean. Live sports data feeds settle markets the second a game ends. For regulated event contract architecture, a Kalshi clone development build shows the pattern.

Security and testing you cannot skip

Trust is everything here. Follow OWASP practices, encrypt data, and set rate limits. Test hard with tools like SonarQube, JMeter, and Firebase before you go live.

Hosting and scaling

Growth should not break the platform. Use Docker and Jenkins to ship fast. Scale horizontally behind load balancers. Tune the matching engine service so it stays quick under load.

How Much Does It Cost to Build a Platform Like Onyx Odds

Quick answer: A custom build can cost roughly 50,000 to 200,000 dollars or more. A ready made clone script cuts both the cost and the time.

The final number depends on a few things. Features drive most of it. A deep feature set, a complex tech stack, strong security, and ongoing support all add cost. The more custom the build, the higher the price.

Here is a simple way to compare the two main paths.

A leaner option can trim the budget further. A Probo clone development build gives you a simple, opinion style market at a lower entry point.

One honest note. These figures are informational only. They are not a promise of returns.

How Long Does It Take to Launch (The 60 Day Path)

Quick answer: With ready made clone scripts, Opinios Labs can launch an Onyx Odds style platform in about 60 days.

Speed comes from starting on a proven base, not a blank page. Here is the path.

Other ready made bases can speed things up too. A Manifold Markets clone gives you a play money model that is quick to stand up.

Compliance and Regulation You Cannot Ignore

Quick answer: Onyx Odds runs a sweepstakes model plus a CFTC registered arm. Any similar platform must plan for licensing, KYC, and regional rules from day one.

Onyx Odds splits its model in two. The free to play side uses a sweepstakes structure. The regulated side runs event contracts through a CFTC registered arm. This split lets the platform reach more users while staying inside the rules. Onyx Odds is legal in a growing list of US states, according to SportsBettingDime.

Rules change by state and by country. Legal disputes over sports event contracts are still playing out in the US. So you must design for compliance from the start. Build it in, do not bolt it on. That means strong KYC, responsible play tools, and geo restrictions by region.

Different market styles carry different rules. A PredictIt clone handles politics style regulated markets.

A Metaculus clone suits forecasting and reputation based models where no money changes hands.

One more point for India. Opinios Labs does not build real money gambling products in India, in line with the Online Gaming Bill, 2025. The focus stays on regulated, compliant, event contract style platforms.

Why Choose Opinios Labs to Build Your Prediction Market Platform

Quick answer: Opinios Labs is a specialist prediction market platform development company. The team has deep, proven experience and a fast launch path.

Here is why founders pick Opinios Labs.

• 16 plus years of experience. The team has built software across fintech, gaming, and trading for more than 16 years. That history shows up in every build.
• 80 plus skilled engineers. More than 80 engineers work on prediction market platforms, with real expertise in order books, matching engines, and AI oracles.
• 64 plus platforms launched. Opinios Labs has launched over 64 prediction market platforms. That is pattern tested know how, not guesswork.
• Ready made clone scripts. Pick from Polymarket, Kalshi, Probo, Augur, Manifold, PredictIt, Metaculus, and Hedgehog Markets clone scripts.
• Fast launch. About 60 days from kickoff.
• Lower cost. Cheaper than building from scratch.
• Full service. From research to post launch support and maintenance.

That depth is backed by the wider Yudiz Solutions team, so your build has real engineering muscle behind it. For a related read, see how to develop a prediction market platform like ProphetX.

Conclusion

Quick answer: Prediction markets are booming, and sports leads the way. Now is a rare window for founders who move fast.

You have a clear choice. Build your own asset, or rent someone else’s rails. Owning the platform gives you the brand, the data, and the upside.

Opinios Labs makes the build simple. You get ready made scripts, a lower cost than building from scratch, a launch in about 60 days, and an AI ready base. For another path, see how to develop a prediction market platform like Novig.

Ready to start? Talk to the Opinios Labs team about your idea.