Two Maps: Where You Live Versus Where You Stand

Residence is not a pin drop

You can have an eligible address and still be blocked in a departure lounge. That is the US version of the question: not only where you reside, but which state is under your feet when you tap the order.

A UK or European exchange asks a different one. Passport, address, KYC file. If your residence is not on their accepted-country list, there is no room to enter. A tunnel does not write you onto the list.

Both checks are the operator’s. We do not draw a state map. We describe the shape, then send you to the dated review and the help centre that actually decides. Event contracts versus back and lay is the ticket. This page is whether you are allowed in.

UK and Europe: a residence list

Classic matching rooms — Betfair, Smarkets, Matchbook — are licensed for short lists of countries, not for “Europe” as a mood. Residence and the operator’s accepted-country page are the usual gates. As of September 2026, a US reader should assume those consumer exchanges are not a US product.

Smarkets’ smarkets.com exchange is a UK/EU room. A US sportsbook brand and a 2026 filing are different chairs. Matchbook’s consumer exchange is not a licensed US product until Matchbook’s own site says otherwise. Betfair Exchange is Flutter’s matching room; FanDuel is the US sportsbook. Different ticket. Different map.

US desks: physical location at the trade

Novig and ProphetX are US-facing event-contract rooms. The gate is not “do you have a UK account.” It is identity, age, and — especially on Novig’s own help centre — where you are physically standing when you trade.

Novig’s eligibility article, as of early September 2026, says nationwide except when you are physically in Nevada, Arizona, or Michigan, and that you must be 21 or older. Travel into an excluded state and they say you cannot place new orders. Their marketing homepage has also used a looser “35+ states” line. The help-centre list and the in-app geo check are the ones that matter. We are not publishing a fifty-state colouring book.

ProphetX’s own lobby, as of September 2026, says it is currently not operating in Nevada. Eligibility is still a location-and-identity check on their side. Other state fights over prediction markets are ongoing in US law; a card on this site is not a legal opinion. Sporttrade was a real state-licensed US order book. A closed desk is not a map you can still use. Closed desks and stale rankings is why that page stays labelled.

Why the VPN line sits on the desk pages

Readers keep asking whether a tunnel “fixes” a blocked desk. Operators treat a VPN as sitting in a country or state you are not in. That is their rule. This site repeats it because the question keeps arriving, not because we sell a workaround.

Betfair’s own terms and geo checks treat the United States as a restricted location; the Betfair review says not to treat a VPN as access.

A US location-at-trade check is the same idea with a smaller map. If the app says you are in an excluded state, a residential address in an eligible one does not move the pin. The warning is here so nobody leaves thinking these pages can override the desk.

Open the help centre that names the states

UK/EU residence question: open the dated reviews for Betfair, Smarkets, and Matchbook — then each operator’s country, terms, or help page. US location question: open ProphetX and Novig — then the lobby or help centre that names the states they will not serve this week.

Lists move. A 2024 accepted-country article can be stale the month you read it. A help-centre exclusion can gain or lose a state. We date what we checked. We do not freeze a map.

No “which desk can I use in my postcode” widget. Start from the named-desk list, then how matching works if you still need the model. Geography is only whether you are allowed in the room.