What Smarkets charges, and what COMMFREE actually covers
Smarkets and Betfair are the two venues in this comparison that charge on net market winnings rather than per contract. The practical consequence is the same on both and it is the only fee fact that really matters: a market you lose costs you nothing in commission. Smarkets is also the only venue here running a genuine, publicly documented welcome code. It is worth reading closely, because the 60 days are counted from something other than what most people assume.
Commission: 2% of net winnings
Smarkets states it in one sentence:
"At Smarkets we charge 2% commission on net market winnings for customers on the Standard Tier. This means if you make a net loss on a market you will not be charged commission."
Two things to take from that.
"Net market winnings", not turnover. Commission is assessed per market on your net position in it, so winning and losing bets within the same market offset before any charge applies.
"Standard Tier" is a qualifier. Smarkets notes that "some customers pay different commission based on their accounts hitting certain limits" and points at a separate tiers article. So 2% is the published rate for ordinary accounts, not a universal one.
Commission paid on each settlement is visible on your account page, which is more transparency than the US event-contract venues offer, there the fee is embedded in the fill and never itemised.
COMMFREE: 60 days at 0%, counted from settlement
The welcome offer, in Smarkets' own words:
"New users can now enjoy 0% commission for 60 days."
- "Enter code COMMFREE in the promo code field during registration."
- "To be eligible for this offer, you need to sign up and deposit after 00:00 BST 1st September, 2023."
- "Eligible customers will be able to enjoy trading with a commission rate of 0% on all bets that settle within 60 days from their first deposit."
The 60 days run on settlement, not placement. A bet placed inside the window that settles outside it pays standard commission, Smarkets says so directly: "any bets which settle after the expiry of the eligibility period will settle at standard commission rates."
That distinction decides whether the offer is worth anything to you. On next-weekend football it is a straightforward 2% discount. On a general election market, a season outright or any long-dated political contract, the markets Smarkets is known for, the bet almost certainly settles after day 60 and the code covers none of it.
The code must be entered at registration. There is no documented way to add it later.
Note also that the eligibility date is 1 September 2023. This is a standing offer that has been running for years, not a limited-time promotion, whatever urgency you see attached to it elsewhere.
Withdrawals are free on every documented method
Smarkets publishes a full method-by-method table, and every row is the same:
| Payment method | Withdrawal fee |
|---|---|
| Instant Bank Transfer | Free |
| Bank Transfer | Free |
| Visa debit | Free |
| Visa credit | Free |
| Mastercard / Eurocard | Free |
| Solo / Maestro | Free |
| Neteller | Free |
| Skrill | Free |
Two rules constrain how you withdraw rather than what it costs:
Closed loop. Withdrawals are offered against the methods you deposited with, and Smarkets warns the policy "may require you to split your withdrawal over different deposit methods". Each option shows the maximum you may take through it. If you funded across three cards, you may be sending money back to three cards.
UK users cannot cancel a pending withdrawal. Smarkets attributes this to UKGC regulation. Once submitted, it goes, which is a consumer protection measure rather than a restriction, and it is worth knowing before you submit one you were planning to reverse.
Smarkets is applying to become a US exchange
Not on any Smarkets help page, and not in any comparison of these venues we can find, but it is on the public record, and it changes what this page is about.
Smarkets has two applications pending with the CFTC, verified against the regulator's own filings registers on 2026-08-27:
| Filing | Entity | Status | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Designated Contract Market | Smarkets Board of Trade Exchange LLC | Pending | 3 Mar 2026 |
| Derivatives Clearing Organization | Smarkets Board of Trade Clearing LLC | Pending Registration | 11 Feb 2026 |
If granted, Smarkets would operate in the US as a federally regulated event contract exchange alongside Kalshi, Polymarket US and Novig, and the commission model on this page is a UK betting exchange model. A US exchange would price under the CFTC framework, where every venue so far charges per contract on the price curve rather than a share of winnings.
So the 2% figure is current and correct for the Smarkets you can use today, and is not a safe guide to what a US Smarkets would charge. Sporttrade is in the same queue and closed its retail product to get there, see what happened to Sporttrade.
Where Smarkets sits against the rest
| Venue | You pay | On a market you lose |
|---|---|---|
| Smarkets | 2% of net market winnings | nothing |
| Betfair | a rate from your rewards package, on net winnings | nothing |
| Kalshi, Polymarket, Robinhood, Novig | a fee per matched contract | you still pay |
Against Betfair the two are structurally identical and differ in the complications: Smarkets publishes one rate and a tiers page; Betfair layers a Market Base Rate, a decaying Discount Rate, Transaction Charges, Expert Fees and Turnover Charges on top. See Betfair commission for what that ladder looks like.
Against the US event-contract exchanges the comparison is not a percentage at all. On Kalshi a losing trade still carries its fee; here it does not. No table of rates can express that difference, which is why most comparisons of these venues mislead.
