Onyx Predictions Review - Tried & Tested

This brand is in the process of rolling out its prediction markets, which is why we created our Onyx Predictions review. Our goal is to help you decide if this brand is a good fit for you. If you’re new to event contracts and prediction markets, we’ll give you a quick overview to get you up to speed. Then we’ll jump into the review, where we’ll cover what types of prediction markets to expect, what payment options are available, whether customer service is accessible, and much more. Read on for all the details on this platform.

Onyx Predictions: Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Regulated by the federal government.
• Available across the United States.
• User-friendly, polished app.

Cons:

• Not yet launched.

What is Onyx Predictions?

Before we jump into our prediction markets review, we wanted to take a moment to explain what Onyx Predictions is all about. You may be familiar with some of Onyx’s other services, such as their Onyx Odds social sportsbook, but that’s not what we’re referring to here. Instead, we’re talking about how you will soon be able to trade event contracts across a variety of categories such as sports, economics, politics, pop culture, crypto, and more.

What is an event contract?

An event contract often takes the form of an event with a binary outcome such as Yes/No, Higher/Lower, etc. There are also event contracts that display ranges, as well as those that offer multiple choice. In all cases, only one of the event contract outcomes can be correct. For example, if the event contract asks if the Rangers will win their next game, the options are Yes or No, and only one can be correct. Or if a pop culture question asks which movie is going to win Best Picture this year, there may be a half dozen options, but only one of them will be the final outcome. Traders can then purchase the specific event contract based on their predicted outcome.

How do the event contracts settle?

The event contracts are initially priced between $0.01 and $0.99, with the price being roughly equivalent to what the market thinks is the chance of a specific outcome happening. For example, if an event contract that says “yes the Rangers will win tonight” is priced at $0.60, then there is roughly a 60% chance of that outcome happening, at least according to the group. Once the event is over, the price of incorrect contracts settles at $0, so the trader gets nothing. Correct contracts settle at $1, so the trader’s profit becomes $1 minus the price they paid for the event contract, minus any fees. In the Ranger example above, the person who purchased the correct contract for $0.60 would get a gross profit of $0.40 for every correct contract they purchased, minus any fees. This is how most prediction market platforms work, so we can expect something similar from Onyx.

Licensing and security: Is Onyx Predictions legit?

Due to the nature of this sort of trading activity, you’re going to be required to verify your identity, which includes uploading your government-issued identification and other sensitive data. So that may have you wondering if this brand is legit, secure, and safe. The short answer is “yes” to all three. Onyx is a well-known brand that is expanding to prediction markets under the company Onyx Predictions, LLC, which is under the ownership of Tsos Technologies, Inc. Onyx Predictions is registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which is a regulatory body that’s part of the federal government, plus it’s a member of the NFA (National Futures Association). The brand has partnered with NinjaTrading Clearing, LLC., which operates the trading exchange. You can read more about this partnership in the site’s detailed terms of service, as well as the other policies and documents on their website. In addition to being in compliance with the law and regulated by the federal government, this site and its associated app are very secure. They employ advanced encryption technologies and a valid security certificate to keep your data safe. Take note that the apps also had to pass security measures in order to be included on Google Play and the Apple App store, so you know these platforms are secure as well.

Do new traders get a bonus?

The answer is no; there doesn’t appear to be an Onyx Predictions bonus available at this time. The prediction market services are still in the process of being fully rolled out, so we definitely wouldn’t rule out this brand offering a bonus in the future, especially since Onyx offers bonuses for some of its other services, such as its social sportsbook. In addition, perhaps we’ll see some sort of loyalty program offered in the future as well for event contract traders. There are some other promotions that you’ll see in the app that aren’t directly tied to event contracts, but you can take advantage of them. For example, the brand does run a refer-a-friend program with referral rewards coming in the form of bonus picks in the social sportsbook. You can learn more about these offers inside our full bonus review. For more information on this topic, visit BestOdds’ Onyx Predictions Bonus Review.

Review of the Onyx Predictions website and app

Both the website and app feature the same dark background with purple and blue highlights, which gives the brand a polished look. In addition, the app and site are laid out in a similar fashion, so you won’t have any issues or learning curve if you jump back and forth between the two. They’re also both highly optimized for mobile use, so you can use the app or the browser-based site for your trades, whichever is more convenient for you. Now, having said that, we preferred to use the app, as there are some slight differences that give the app an edge over the site. The biggest and most favorable difference is the amount of information you find beneath the Account tab on the app versus the website. The website offers fairly basic links and info, whereas the app consolidates much of your important information, such as referrals, support links (including live chat), transaction history, the ability to change your password, and more. While this information is mostly available on the website, it’s spread out and more difficult to find.

What prediction markets are available?

Since the prediction markets haven’t launched yet, we can only speculate on what categories will be available. Take note that we contacted customer service, but they told us they’d provide more information as they get closer to the launch date. So, we took a look at Onyx’s partner in this venture, Ninja Trader, to see what types of markets they have available, as we can speculate that the markets will be similar. Here’s what Ninja Trader offers through their NT Predicts platform:

• Sports prediction markets
• Elections
• Crypto prediction markets
• Economics
• Commodities
• Financials
• Politics prediction markets

Since the Onyx brand is based around sports, we can be fairly certain sports will be the biggest category with the highest liquidity. The brand will likely feature all major sports (such as baseball, football, soccer, basketball, hockey, and so on), and will likely cover both pro sports and college sports. We can also speculate that, as NT Predicts, Onyx will also cover cricket, motor sports, rugby, tennis, esports, and more. We can also expect that the platform will feature some of the most popular events in the other categories. For example, if this brand offers politics, then big events such as the presidential election will be featured. We also know that crypto markets are coming soon, as they’re featured currently on Onyx’s homepage. You can brush up on this topic by checking out our crypto review.

Review of the Onyx Predictions payment options

The payment options for this brand include Pay By Bank (via Skrill), Apple Pay, and debit cards. These options fund your account automatically, and there are no fees charged by the brand. It’s worth noting that there are more payment options available on other parts of the site, but generally speaking, most prediction markets do not accept credit cards, so we don’t expect that this brand will either, in order to stay in compliance with the law. These types of sites prefer “closed loop” payments, meaning they want you to withdraw back to the same source with which you made a deposit. As such, your withdrawal options likely will be via a bank transfer or your debit card. If you were able to use Apple Pay to fund the account, you may be required to withdraw using the underlying debit card, or you may need to set up a different bank account for withdrawals. Note that most platforms don’t charge any fees, and withdrawals may take a day or two for debit cards, and up to five business days for bank transfers. The only fees some similar platforms charge are for an instant debit withdrawal that hits your card within 30 minutes or less. We expect you’ll find similar options with Onyx Predictions.

Review of the Onyx Predictions customer service experience

Currently, the self-help documentation on this site is fairly sparse, and most of it is relevant to the other services offered through the brand. There are only one or two documents that apply to event contract traders, such as how to verify one’s account. As such, if you do require help, you’ll need to navigate to the “Contact Us” link in the app or on the website, and then fill out the contact form with your information, or start a live chat. Due to the nature of our question, we opted to use the contact form. It took just under five minutes for the customer service representative to answer us the first time, and from there we went back and forth a few times with additional questions, at which point our emails were being answered in just a minute or two. That’s good news, as usually email inquiries take hours to get answered on platforms like this, but here our inquiries were answered almost as fast as if we were doing a live chat. We can advise you that either the live chat or the email option will get you the help you need, fast.

Wrapping up our Onyx Predictions review

If you’ve checked out some of our social sportsbooks and sports reviews on this site, then you know we already like this brand, so we have high hopes for their prediction markets as well. Although the brand hasn’t yet launched its prediction market trading, what we see is very promising. The site is operating in compliance with the law and under the oversight of the federal government. The predictions are run through the NinjaTrader exchange, which is another compliant company. We expect that they will have many of the same markets as Ninja Trader, which covers sports, politics, pop culture, and more. If you’d like to explore it now so that you’re first in line for the launch, all you have to do is tap the Onyx Predictions banner on this page.

Onyx Predictions review FAQ

1.  When will the platform fully launch?

That is unclear at this time, but we will conduct an editorial process review and update this review where needed after the launch.

2.  How fast will contracts settle?

With most of these platforms, the contracts settle almost instantly after the event is over (certainly within the hour), with payments hitting accounts shortly thereafter.

3. What types of fees can traders expect?

All of these types of platforms charge trading fees, but we will need to wait until launch to find out what the fees will be. You can estimate that fees will be about $0.02 per contract, which is roughly the average in the industry.