What Is the versus App? A Plain Guide

The phrase people most often type into a search engine before they reach us is simply "versus app". It is a fair question, and the answer usually sits buried inside product pages. So here it is in plain terms: what versus is, how a position works, what it costs, who regulates it, and how money moves in and out.

What versus Actually Is

versus is a prediction market app. You take a position on whether a stated event will happen, across politics, finance, sport, AI, crypto and entertainment. Instead of odds handed to you by a bookmaker, you trade at a price that moves as other people take the other side.

That difference matters more than it sounds. A bookmaker quotes a number and keeps it. In a prediction market the number is the market's own running estimate of how likely the event is, and it keeps moving for as long as the market is open.

How a Price Works

Every price sits between 0p and 100p, and you can read it straight off as a probability. A market trading at 62p is saying the event is roughly 62% likely, according to the people trading it at that moment.

Settlement is just as plain. A winning contract settles at 100p. A losing one settles at 0p. Say a market trades at 62p and you take a position there: if the event happens you are paid at 100p per contract, and if it does not, the position is worth nothing at all. You can lose the whole amount you put in, and plenty of positions do exactly that.

Two things follow from that. Your loss can never be larger than what you put into a position: there is no leverage and no margin call, so a position cannot turn into a debt. And while a market is still open you can sell your position at the current price instead of waiting for the result, which is how people take a smaller gain early or cut a loss short.

What It Costs

One fee on a trade: 2% of the stake, added on top of the stake, with no cap. It is shown before you confirm, so the total is in front of you before you agree to it. Say you put in £10. The fee is 20p, so £10.20 leaves your balance.

That is the only fee on a trade. Deposits and withdrawals are free within normal limits.

How Markets Settle

Every market names the source that settles it before you trade. You can read what will decide the outcome, and where that answer will come from, while you are still deciding whether to take a position at all. If the source is not one you trust, that is a good reason to leave the market alone.

This is worth checking every single time, because most arguments about prediction markets turn out to be arguments about resolution rather than about price. Our guide on how to verify market rules goes through what to look for.

Getting Money In and Out

versus settles in ordinary money, not cryptocurrency. Credit cards are not accepted, because licensed operators in Great Britain are not permitted to take them.

Before a first withdrawal you verify your identity with a photo of government ID and a selfie. That is anti money laundering law rather than a house rule, and it usually clears in minutes. Withdrawals return to the method you deposited with; timings depend on that method and are shown in the app.

Customer money is held separately from company money. If we fail to resolve a complaint to your satisfaction, there is an independent route you can take it to.

Who Regulates It

versus is licensed by the UK Gambling Commission under account 101143, which anyone can look up on the public register. Operating these markets in Great Britain without that licence is not legal.

This is the part that most comparison articles skate over. Two of the better known prediction markets, Polymarket and Kalshi, block UK users, and neither is licensed in the UK. Reaching them through a VPN puts you outside their terms and outside UK protection at the same time, so if something goes wrong there is no regulator to go to.

Staying in Control

Safer Play lives in the app: deposit limits, loss limits, reality checks, time out and self exclusion, alongside GAMSTOP. Setting a deposit limit before you start is a sensible habit rather than an admission of a problem, and the limit holds whatever mood you are in a fortnight later.

Prediction markets are entertainment with real money at stake. They are not a way to make money, and they are not a way out of money trouble. If it stops feeling like entertainment, the tools on our safer play page are the place to start, and BeGambleAware offers free, confidential advice.

Which Device

There are three ways in, with the same account behind all of them. The iPhone app is on the App Store, listed as "versus | Prediction Markets". Android is a direct download from our own site rather than the Play Store. The web app runs in any browser, which is the easiest way to look around before installing anything.

Is It Worth a Look?

That depends entirely on what you want from it. If you follow an election, a central bank decision or a league closely, and you want to test your read against the crowd's, a prediction market is an honest way to do it: you are putting a price on your own opinion against people doing exactly the same. If what you want is a way to make money, this is the wrong place to look.

The open markets are on predictions. How it works walks through a first trade step by step, and the FAQ answers the questions that come up most often.

18+ only. Trade responsibly. BeGambleAware.org and GAMSTOP.