How it works — NapBet

The basic unit

Every market is one yes-or-no question with a deadline. You buy shares of YES or shares of NO. When the question settles, each winning share pays exactly $1.00 and each losing share pays nothing.

So if you buy YES at 62¢ and you are right, you turn 62¢ into $1.00 — a 61% return. If you are wrong, you lose the 62¢. Your maximum loss is always what you paid, never more.

A worked example

You think the Riverwalk breaks ground on time. It is trading at 72¢. You put in $50.

$50 ÷ $0.72 = 69.4 shares of YES
It breaks ground: 69.4 × $1.00 = $69.40
Profit before fees: $19.40
Settlement fee: a flat $1.00
You keep $68.40

If it does not break ground, the 69.4 shares expire worthless and you are out the $50.

Why the price moves

Prices move because people trade. Buying YES pushes the price up; buying NO pushes it down. Large orders move the price more than small ones, and you fill at the average price across your own impact — so you cannot move a thin market and profit from the move itself.

A market that sits at 50¢ is genuinely uncertain. One at 95¢ is nearly settled, and there is little left to win. The interesting markets are the ones where you think the crowd is wrong.

Selling before it settles

You do not have to wait for resolution. If a market moves your way, you can sell your shares back at the current price and take the profit immediately. This is usually how people actually close positions.

Fees

$1 per winning market. A flat dollar when a position settles in your favour, never more than the profit itself — win 60¢ and the fee is 60¢, not a dollar.
No fee to place a trade. No spread markup, no monthly charge.
No fee to lose. If you are wrong, you lose your stake and nothing more.
No fee on referral credit. The $5 you get for inviting someone settles without one.
No fee to cash out your own money.

Getting paid

Your balance is real money, and you can ask for it back. Pick whichever of these you already use:

Venmo — the @username on your profile.
Cash App — your $Cashtag.
Ethereum — any address you control.

There is one bar: $10 of winnings. That is profit from markets that settled your way, added up. Losing markets do not count against it, and deposits and referral bonuses do not count toward it — only what you won. Past that, request any amount from $10 up to your balance.

Every request is read by a person before anything is sent, which is why Venmo and Cash App ask for the name on the account: it is checked against the handle first. Nothing leaves your balance unless the request is approved, and you can see where each one stands on your wallet page.

How markets resolve

Every market names its source before it opens. Not "news reports" — a specific, checkable public record: a council vote, an IHSA box score, an NWS climate report, a district board minute.

Trading stops at the listed close time.
Settlement is posted within 72 hours of the source publishing.
Winning shares pay $1.00 and land in your cash balance automatically.
If the source becomes unavailable, or the question turns out to be genuinely ambiguous, the market is voided and every position is refunded at cost. Nobody wins a coin flip on bad wording.

Disputes

If you think a market settled wrong, you have 72 hours to dispute it. A disputed settlement is reviewed against the named source and, if the original call was wrong, reversed and re-paid.

Limits and guardrails

You set a monthly deposit cap at signup. Lowering it is instant; raising it takes 72 hours.
There is a maximum position size per market, so one trader cannot corner a thin market.
You can lock your own account for a fixed period at any time.

Proposing a market

Anyone with an account can propose one. Good proposals read like a contract: a clear subject, an unambiguous threshold, a hard deadline, and one source that settles it. Proposals are rejected if they target a private individual, involve anything illegal, or could be caused by the person proposing them.

New markets need seed liquidity — money you put up so there is something to trade against. It stays in the market until it resolves.

What this is not

This is not a sportsbook. There is no house taking the other side of your bet and no built-in edge against you. You trade against other people, and the price is whatever the two of you agree on. NapBet takes a cut of winnings and otherwise does not care who is right.