Adaverse, a Cardano ecosystem accelerator founded to boost the development of Web3-based solutions in Africa, has unveiled its participation in a fundraising round for Stakefair, a Decentralised Finance (DeFi) staking platform building an ecosystem of gaming products with digital assets on Cardano, the largest environmentally-sustainable and proof-of-stake blockchain.
The recently concluded seed fund round aggregated prominent investors including EMURGO Africa, Adaverse, Timi Ajiboye, Tomiwa Olaosebikan, Peter Kisadha, Nestcoin, Kepple Africa Ventures, Canza Finance, Voltron Capital, and Echo VC Chain.
Shogo Ishida, co-CEO for the Middle East & Africa at EMURGO Africa, lauded the Stakefair initiative and commented, “Seeing the impact of sports betting on the African continent and the continued rise across the planet, an extraordinary Web3 solution that bridges the gap between financial responsibility by reducing risk while maintaining the thrill of betting is a venture we are pleased to support to scale”.
Adaverse was launched in September 2021 as a joint venture partnership between one of EMURGO’s investment arms, EMURGO Africa and Everest Ventures, to identify and provide valuable support resources to promising African founders building the next wave of Web3 dApps in DeFi, NFTs, gaming, metaverse, and more on Cardano’s third-generation blockchain.
Stakefair is a DeFi staking platform bridging the gap between blockchain and real-life experiences for predictive wins.
Stakefair allows users to bet on the outcome of sports matches and other real-world events and also have a chance to earn money by staking digital currency.
Users predict the outcome of events and stake on a particular outcome. If the prediction is wrong, users get their original stakes back. If the prediction is right, the payout is calculated based on the amount they staked, the total odds carried, and the day of the week they staked.
Having seen an upsurge in the sports betting industry, Stakefair harnesses Web3 and DeFi tools to maximize data for bettors on the continent.
Founded in 2021 as BetDemand by Akinyemi Akindele, Stakefair has evolved beyond sports betting and intends to revolutionize predictive games on the African continent and beyond.
Having completed its first seed round, Stakefair has transitioned to its mainnet that will offer a bouquet of Web3 products accessible to both B2C and B2B enterprises, including a Metaverse collection, a stand-alone aggregator, and DeFi infrastructure for Dapp protocols which will be launched on Cardano’s third-generation blockchain.
Cardano’s environmentally-sustainable smart contract platform with fast and deterministic fees allows Stakefair to build its gaming engine and provide quick settlement of events on Cardano’s blockchain. It also allows Stakefair to bring its lending and borrowing platform to Cardano’s expanding Web3 ecosystem and large global community. The mentors and resources that EMURGO Africa and Adaverse provide to build on Cardano is also a strategic advantage.
In the race to make DeFi more relatable for the end-user, especially in the sports betting space, Stakefair is exemplifying the true spirit of accessibility that Web3 infrastructures aim to achieve.
Sports betting is a continent-wide phenomenon in Africa with Nigeria, Stakefair’s prime target represents the largest betting market in sub-Saharan Africa, and comfortably accounts for 7% of the continent total betting shares and over $2 billion a year on betting.
In 2022, the global sports betting market is expected to reach $99.20 billion and is forecasted to grow to $350 billion by 2024. Despite the immense size, popularity, and potential of the sports betting market, it has been characterized by incumbents charging high fees and delivering minimal product innovation.
