Prediction Market Fees Explained

Unlike traditional sportsbooks, which earn their margin through the vig baked into every line, CFTC-regulated prediction markets charge transparent per-trade fees. Understanding the full cost of trading is the difference between a strategy that looks profitable on paper and one that actually compounds.

Trading Fees by Platform

Kalshi uses a tiered, dynamic fee model. Most retail trades cost between 0% and 2% of the trade value, with the exact fee depending on the contract's price and time to expiry. Contracts trading near 50¢ carry the highest fees; deep favorites and long shots are cheaper. Kalshi posts its fee schedule publicly.

Robinhood routes prediction-market trades through Kalshi's exchange but charges $0.00 commission to the user — Robinhood absorbs the venue fee in exchange for order flow economics. The trade-off is that Robinhood may show slightly wider effective spreads on certain contracts.

DraftKings Predictions and FanDuel Predicts are settled on CME Group↗ infrastructure. Per-contract fees are typically $0.03–$0.10 depending on contract size, applied to both entry and exit.

OG.com (Crypto.com's sports prediction brand) charges a flat 2% trading fee on entry and 0% on exit settlement.

Novig and Rebet operate on a sweepstakes coin model — there is no per-trade fee, but the implied cost is built into the redemption ratio between sweeps coins and US dollars. Always check the redemption rate before assuming a sweepstakes platform is "free."

Deposit and Withdrawal Costs

On the major regulated platforms (Kalshi, Robinhood, DraftKings Predictions, FanDuel Predicts, OG.com, Fanatics Markets) deposits via ACH and debit card are free for retail-size amounts. Wire deposits typically incur the user's own bank fee.

Withdrawals are usually free via ACH (1–3 business day settlement). Same-day debit-card withdrawals on Kalshi cost $2 per transaction. Wire withdrawals carry a $25 fee on most platforms.

The Hidden Cost: The Spread

The biggest cost most new traders ignore is the bid-ask spread. If a contract has a bid of 47¢ and an ask of 50¢, the 3¢ spread is essentially a hidden fee — you pay 50¢ to enter and could only sell back instantly at 47¢.

On highly liquid Kalshi NFL or Politics markets, spreads are routinely 1¢ or tighter, making spread cost negligible. On thinly traded long-tail markets (state-level political contracts, niche weather events) spreads can blow out to 5¢ or more, which is a much larger drag than any platform fee.

Rule of thumb: treat half the bid-ask spread as your effective entry cost on top of the explicit fee. A 50¢ contract with a 2¢ spread really cost you 51¢.

Settlement and Inactivity

Settlement is free on all major platforms — when a contract resolves to YES or NO, you receive (or lose) the full $1 with no additional fee deducted.

Watch for inactivity fees on smaller venues. Most Tier-1 platforms (Kalshi, Robinhood, DraftKings, FanDuel, OG.com) do not charge inactivity fees. A handful of smaller sweepstakes-style platforms apply monthly account-maintenance fees after 6+ months of zero activity — read the terms before opening an account you will not use frequently.

Putting It Together

For a typical $100 NFL trade on Kalshi at 50¢ with a 1¢ spread: - Platform fee: ~$1.50 (1.5% mid-curve) - Spread cost on entry: ~$0.50 - Spread cost on early exit: ~$0.50 - Total round-trip cost: roughly $2.50, or 2.5% of the trade.

Compare that to a traditional sportsbook NFL bet, where the vig typically extracts 4.5–5% of expected value on every line. On heavily traded contracts, prediction markets are meaningfully cheaper — which is why professional sports traders increasingly route volume through Kalshi and Robinhood.