By PredictQ Team // Updated: August 2026
The name is the pricing model. Novig runs no-vig, peer-to-peer markets: members trade against each other at prices the market sets, and no house margin gets built into any line. Where a sportsbook bakes roughly 4.5% of hold into a standard spread before you ever see it, Novig’s exchange structure removes that layer entirely. For anyone putting real volume through sports markets, this is the single biggest reason the platform exists.
This breakdown covers how the no-vig model works mechanically, where the sportsbook comparison lands in actual dollars, and how Novig stacks up against the other prediction markets. One note on scope: Novig hasn’t published a line-item fee schedule for us to reprint, and we’re not going to invent one. The pricing model below is the documented structure; novig.com/terms is the source of truth for account-level specifics.
The Core: No Vig in the Price
The most important cost fact about Novig is an absence. When you place a trade, you’re matched directly against another member at a price one of you posted. Novig facilitates the match and steps aside. There’s no bookmaker on the other side inserting a margin, because there’s no bookmaker at all.
Run the sportsbook math for contrast. A standard -110/-110 spread requires $110 to win $100 on either side. Price both sides as probabilities and they sum to about 104.8%, not 100%. That extra 4.8% is the vig, and the book collects it regardless of outcome because the market is priced to overcollect.
On Novig, contract prices on the two sides of a market are set by members competing in an open order book, so they gravitate toward a true 100%. A fair coin-flip market trades near 50 cents a side. You put up $50 to win $50, not $55 to win $50.
What That Costs You at a Book, Annually
Scale the vig and the number gets uncomfortable. Someone placing 400 bets a year at $50 average is putting $20,000 through a sportsbook. At standard -110 pricing, the book’s structural edge extracts roughly $900 to $1,000 of expected value from that volume before a single game kicks off. Same picks at true market prices and that money stays home.
Push handle past six figures and the sportsbook tax runs into the thousands. This is why the venue decision matters more than most handicapping decisions: it’s the one edge you get without being smarter than anyone.
How the Exchange Works Mechanically
Novig runs a central limit order book, the same architecture as a stock exchange.
A Make order posts your price to the book. You’re offering to trade at odds you chose, and the offer sits in the open book until another member takes it or you cancel. Anyone can make a market.
A Take order accepts an existing offer at the best available price. It matches instantly.
Contracts price from 1 cent to $1, and the price is the probability: a 40-cent contract is a 40% market that pays $1 per contract if it hits. Every price on the platform is visible in the book before you trade. Compare that to a sportsbook, where the margin is hidden inside the line and the line is whatever the house says it is.
The Make Order Discount
On top of the no-vig baseline, Make orders let you manufacture additional edge. Say a market’s best available price is 50 cents and you think that’s fair. Post a Make order at 48 cents instead. If another member takes it, you just bought a 50% outcome at a 48% price, two cents of pure edge per contract. If nobody takes it, you cancel and you’ve lost nothing.
New members mash the Take button. Regulars live in the book. Two cents of price improvement on a $100 position is $2, and across a few hundred trades a season, patience alone compounds into hundreds of dollars. Small edges applied relentlessly are the whole game. As a bonus, Make orders also earn Novig Points (1 point per dollar traded) if you’ve opted into the rewards program, so the patient route pays twice.
Cash Out Without the Cashout Tax
Sportsbook cashouts are a second vig event: the book offers you a fraction of your position’s fair value and pockets the difference, routinely 30-40% of what the position is worth. On Novig, Cash Out on straight trades settles you at a fixed, guaranteed amount derived from live market prices, and you can also sell or add to positions anytime at prices the market will bear. Exiting a winning position at fair value instead of the house’s take-it-or-leave-it number is a cost saving that never shows up in any fee table, and over a season of futures trading it can dwarf the vig itself.
Novig vs. Other Prediction Markets
The comparison set, on sports markets specifically:
- Novig: no-vig peer-to-peer pricing, no house margin in the line.
- Kalshi: charges trading fees that peak around $1.75 per 100 contracts on 50-cent markets, lower toward the price extremes.
- Polymarket: charges fees on sports markets, around $0.75 per 100 shares at 50 cents.
- Traditional sportsbook: roughly $4.50 of implied vig baked into a standard $100 position.
Fee structures at competitors shift, so verify current numbers before moving serious volume. But structurally, a no-vig exchange is the cheapest venue design that exists for sports markets, and Novig is the one running it nationwide.
Keeping Your Total Cost Down
Three habits preserve the edge. Post Make orders when you have patience, because every fill at your price instead of the market’s is pure savings. Concentrate your volume in liquid markets, where tight books mean the spread between sides stays thin. And opt into Novig Points, since the monthly prize pool for Bronze-and-above tiers is money flowing back toward active members who were trading anyway.
Bottom Line
Novig’s cost story is the shortest one we write: the pricing model is no-vig and peer-to-peer, the order book is open, and the 4.5% sportsbook tax has no equivalent here. Against that baseline, every dollar of volume you move from a book to the exchange keeps more of your own edge in your pocket.
Read novig.com/terms for the account-level fine print, then spend an hour learning the Make order. That hour pays better than almost anything else you can do in sports markets. Sign up HERE.
Disclosures: PredictQ may receive compensation when readers sign up for platforms through links on this page. Pricing information accurate as of August 2026 and subject to change; competitor fee structures change frequently and should be verified directly. This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. PredictQ supports responsible trading. Restrictions & requirements apply. Not available in all states. 21+. Event contract trading involves risk & is not appropriate for all. Consider if it’s appropriate for you in light of financial circumstances. See novig.com/terms for information.