How to Read a Fee Table

Three different machines

Most people arrive with one question: what is the percent? On a classic UK or European exchange that is often the right shape — a cut of profit after the market settles. It is not the only shape on this site.

A second machine charges the person who takes liquidity, using a coefficient and a contract price, and often charges the person who posted the price nothing. A third leaves the default net-win cut behind and bills a percentage on every settled matched bet, win or lose.

Figures in this piece are labelled as teaching. We do not republish a live rate card. Start with commission versus a sportsbook margin, then open the operator. If a terms PDF and this paragraph disagree, the PDF is the one that bills you.

Net-win percent: the cut after you are ahead

The common UK and European model: the desk takes a percentage of net winnings on a settled market. Lose the market and you typically owe no commission on it. Win £40 and a 5% teaching figure takes £2; you keep £38. That 5% is not anyone’s live rate. It is the shape of the arithmetic.

Betfair describes the same idea as a formula — net winnings × a market base rate × any account discount — and does not ask this site to reprint the percentage. Matchbook has long said the cut is “usually 2% on winning bets.” That is their education wording, not a quote for every territory, Zero market, or commercial schedule.

Residence splits, Zero markets, promotions on a named slate, and commercial or API deals are not the leaflet. The reviews here are a dated reading. Trade from the operator’s table, not from a screenshot of ours.

Maker and taker: a coefficient, not a leaflet

Novig does not publish a single UK-style commission percentage. It publishes a schedule. Maker fills — you posted the price — are $0 on their help centre as of September 2026. Some taker trades are also $0. Others use a published formula: fee = coefficient × price × (1 − price) × number of contracts.

That formula is the shape of the machine. The coefficients, and which products they attach to, live on Novig’s own “Fees on Novig” article. We walk the structure on the review. We are not their rate card. A 10 September 2026 note on that same help page already shows how a product line can be carved out. The ticket in front of you is newer than this paragraph.

A “no vig” headline is not the same as a $0 live or futures take. Ask whether you made the price or took it. Then ask which product you are in. The coefficient answers the second question. Their help centre answers both.

Per-bet Pro tiers: a different tax on the same room

Smarkets is the clean teaching case. Their published terms, as of September 2026, set a default commission of 2% of net winnings in each market — the first machine. The same terms describe other tiers that charge a percentage on each settled matched bet, win or lose.

Those tiers — Smarkets names them Pro and Select — are not a cheaper leaflet. They are a different tax: you pay when you win and when you lose, on every settled matched bet. A highly profitable account can be moved. If you are on one of those tiers, you are no longer comparing the 2% default. Compare the tier you are actually on, on their terms — last modified 14 August 2026 in the version this site has dated.

The switch is the point, not the number. A net-win 2% and a 1% per-bet-win-or-lose line cannot share a column. Do the arithmetic on the account you have, then read Smarkets’ own commission clause.

A lobby one-liner is not a table

ProphetX prints “2% fee — winnings only” on its own lobby as of September 2026. Treat that as their marketing line, then confirm the fee on the order ticket. Straight-trade copy is not a parlay table. If the ticket and the lobby disagree, believe the ticket.

That lobby line next to a Novig coefficient or a Smarkets Pro tier is not a ranking. The machines differ. The named-desk reviews say how each operator describes the cut — then send you to their page.

We do not rank a “best fee.” We do not run a claim button. If a desk is running a 0% slate or a new-participant credit, that lives on their site, expires, and is not a standing rate.

How to use these pages

Read the shape first. Then open the operator. Then look at whether anyone will match you — an empty book still beats a cheap line.

UK and European net-win rooms: Smarkets, Matchbook, and Betfair. US event-contract venues: ProphetX and Novig. Different licence, different ticket, different table. Event contracts versus back and lay is the instrument difference.

This site is not their fee table. Date the screen you used. If their terms moved yesterday, this paragraph is late. A closed desk has no current table — Sporttrade is history, and closed desks and stale rankings is why an old screenshot is not a rate.