Vig is a term commonly used in sports betting to describe the fee that a sportsbook charges for handling a wager. Also known as "juice," vig ensures that sportsbooks remain profitable over time, regardless of the outcome of individual games. While the vig might seem small, understanding how it works is crucial for bettors aiming to make informed wagers and maximize their potential returns.
Vigorish, often shortened to vig, refers to the built-in commission that sportsbooks charge for processing bets. It is not displayed as a separate fee but is instead embedded in the odds offered. This subtle inclusion allows sportsbooks to earn a profit regardless of the result of a sporting event.
Yes, in the context of sports betting, vig is the same as juice and the two terms are interchangeable. Other terms sometimes used to describe vigorish include the cut or margin.
If you’ve ever visited a casino you’ll probably have come across the term ‘house edge’. That’s kind of like the juice at a sportsbook though it is slightly different. Sportsbooks make their money in one of two ways - by taking losing bets and by receiving commission (juice/vig) on wagers.
Sportsbooks charge vig to cover their operating costs and ensure long-term profitability. Unlike casino games with fixed house edges (like roulette or blackjack), sports outcomes are unpredictable.
Vig helps sportsbooks maintain a cushion against this uncertainty and guarantees a margin of profit by slightly tilting the odds in their favor.
In addition to earning revenue from losing bets, vigorish allows sportsbooks to balance action on both sides of a wager. By adjusting the odds or vig, they encourage bettors to wager on the less popular side, reducing their exposure to significant losses.
Yes, with the exception of some occasional special promos, bets at all of the sportsbooks available in New York and throughout the US will include vig. This makes sure that whether your wager hits or not, the sportsbook still makes some money. Juice is never listed separately by the book, instead, it’s built into the odds offered.
To help get a better understanding of vig and how it works, let’s take a look at examples of how juice is added to some popular types of wager.
Taking a real-life example, say the Buffalo Bills and LA Rams play each other when the NFL preseason gets underway. Both teams are listed at -110 on the moneyline on a pick ‘em bet with no favorite.
Whichever side you take, you need to wager $110 to make a $100 profit. If you go $110 on the Bills and a buddy opts for $110 on the Rams, when one team wins the book will have collected $220 and paid out $210. The $10 difference is the juice.
On the other hand, the book has set the line at 26.5 points on its totals market for the Bills with odds of -115 on the final score either being above or below that figure. The juice on either side of this bet means you’d have to wager $115 to win $100. The extra $15 represents the vig.
Once you’ve placed a few sports bets, you’ll become familiar with what the vig looks like on different odds offered. It’s also easy to calculate what the vig is with a simple formula.
To calculate the vig on a bet, follow these steps:
Step 1: Convert the odds into implied probabilities.
For negative odds (e.g., -110): Negative Odds / (Negative Odds + 100) × 100 = Implied Probability
For positive odds (e.g., +130): 100 / (Positive Odds + 100) × 100 = Implied Probability
Step 2: Add the implied probabilities of both sides of the bet.
Step 3: Subtract 100% from the total to determine the vig percentage.
Example Of Calculating VigIn a matchup between the Jets and Eagles: Odds on the Jets: +110 Odds on the Eagles: -130 Implied probability of the Jets to win: 100 / (110 + 100) × 100 = 47.6% Implied probability of the Eagles to win: 130 / (130 + 100) × 100 = 56.5% Total implied probability: 47.6% + 56.5% = 104.1% Vig: 104.1% - 100% = 4.1% |
In the real world, the probability of every outcome totalled together comes to 100% but that’s not how odds on sportsbooks work. A pure even money bet on something like a coin flip will have a probability of 50% on either side.
Implied probability in sports betting converts odds into a percentage while also taking into account the house edge or the juice.
As the juice influences odds, you need to remove it to get a clearer picture of a market’s value. The odds on a sports event aren’t solely linked to the likelihood of an outcome occurring. There’s also a profitability element baked into odds offered at sportsbooks, which is the vig.
Taking the juice off gives us a ‘clean line’, which is the true probability of a team winning. That’s a good strategy for understanding the oddsmakers' expectations of what will actually happen in a game or competition.
Removing the vig gives you a clearer picture of a market’s true probability. To calculate the true probabilities, use the following steps:
Step 1: Calculate the implied probabilities for all outcomes.
Step 2: Add the implied probabilities to get the total.
Step 3: Divide each outcome’s implied probability by the total.
Example Of Removing The VigWe’ve already worked out the implied probabilities for the Jets (47.6%) versus the Eagles (56.5%) with a total of 104.1%. So following the steps above the true probability calculation looks like this: Odds on the Jets: +110 Odds on the Eagles: -130 Total implied probability: 104.1% True probability of Jets winning: 47.6 / 104.1 = 45.7% True probability of Eagles winning: 56.5 / 104.1 = 54.3% |
As you can see, the true probability events total 100% when summed together. There isn’t a huge difference here compared with the implied probability because the vig on our odds of +110 and -130 is relatively low. However, we can tell that the sportsbook thinks this game will be a close affair which we can use to inform our betting picks.
Ultimately, the presence of vig can mean that you win more bets than you lose and still come out behind. That means to become a successful gambler in the long term you need to factor vig into your betting decisions.
There’s a hard and fast rule in the world of sports betting that if you were making all of your wagers at the standard odds of -110 then you’d need to win 52.4% of your bets just to break even. Naturally, most of us don’t place all our bets at those odds, but it’s a good figure to bear in mind for a baseline.
To profit in the long term, you must win at a rate higher than the break-even point for the odds you’re betting. At standard odds of -110, your break-even win rate is 52.4%.
To calculate the break-even rate, us the following formula:
Break-Even Rate = Vig / (Vig + 100)
In our example for odds at -110 this would be: 110 / (110 + 100) = 52.4%
Factoring the vig into your calculations is therefore vital for understanding the break-even rate needed when placing bets.
| 🏅 Pro Tip: Keep a record of the break-even rate of bets you place and the success rate of these bets. By averaging out the values for both over the longer term, you’ll be able to see if your strategy for picking bets is putting you in profit (above the break even rate) or at a loss (below the break even rate). |
Vig is added to all bet types including spreads, totals and moneylines. However it’s rarely added equally to all types, and the juice is regularly adjusted. The goal of any sportsbook is to set a line that brings in even action on both sides.
If a sportsbook considers that too much money is being wagered on one team compared with the other, it will raise the vig and so the fee being paid by bettors on one side while simultaneously lowering it on the other. It does this to encourage more bets on the less popular option.
The juice not only varies by sportsbook but also by bet type. You’ll almost always find that the vig is lower on spreads and over/under wagers than it is for parlays and futures. For moneylines, the vig can be all over the place depending on how big the favorite and the underdog is.
Put simply, the higher the vig then the higher the house advantage. It also means you’re less likely to make money in the longer term if you favor high vig betting types.
Let’s take a look at what this means for the most popular wagering categories:
The odds on Moneyline bets and the vigorish incorporated into them can vary enormously based on the perceived quality of two competitors in an event.
For games that appear as if they’ll feature a pair of evenly matched teams, you might see odds that are very close in number such as -105 and -115.
For contests with a big favorite and a clear underdog the odds offered can be at completely different ends of the spectrum. Seriously fancied sides could be priced at -250 or -400 alongside a big dog at huge odds such as +500.
Say you like a game with the two teams rated at odds of -125 and +105, you might find another sportsbook has the game priced at -110 and +125. Picking the favorite on the first set of odds would return a profit of $80, against $90.91 at the second book. For just a little browsing your potential payout has increased nicely.
| 🏅 Pro Tip: When the two teams are close in price with low odds, line shopping to compare what’s being offered at different books becomes important. |
The vig/juice on futures bets is normally higher than it is for standard wagers on a game. Futures bets, such as who will win the PGA Championship in golf betting or the eventual winner of the Eastern Conference in soccer, will often have a higher implied probability than other bet types. This can total 110% or even be at 120% or 140%.
If you were to wager on who would win the PGA before tee off, the field would contain 156 players. A sportsbook will usually spread out its liability to realize a profit on the totality of wagers placed. It protects the bookmaker somewhat but also offers bettors the chance of a healthy payout on high odds.
🏅 Pro Tip: It’s always worth calculating the juice on future bets and comparing a few different books. It’s not even unusual for a sportsbook to misprice odds when the number of competitors is big or the event still has a long way to run. |
Much like futures, the vig on parlay bets will almost always be higher than straight bets on one team or player. That’s because the sportsbook won’t be offering true odds on a parlay. If it did then a six-team combination would be set at +700 but it’s more likely to stand at +600.
The more selections you add to a parlay, the higher the vig but of course, the odds also rise sharply. That said, bookmakers love parlays as they are one of the riskiest wagers there is. If one leg loses, the whole bet fails.
🏅 Pro Tip: You’ll often find parlay promos at all the biggest NY sportsbooks with reduced juice, particularly during the football season when fans go combo bet crazy at the best NFL sportsbooks on the biggest game days. |
At most sportsbooks, point spread markets open at a standard odds listing of -110 for both the underdog and the favorite. Remembering that bookmakers like to keep either side of the market balanced in terms of the action on them, once money starts coming in, it’s not unusual to see movements on point spreads.
The odds might then shift to -115 on one side and -105 on the other. The book does this to compensate for one-sided betting by adjusting the vig. On point spreads, the oddsmakers can also change the line, so what started at +/- 4.5 might shift to 3.5 or 2.5.
The vig on point spread bets is normally lower than for parlays and it pays to monitor betting lines frequently for favorable movements. A sportsbook will usually change the juice before it takes another look at where it’s set the points spread.
🏅 Pro Tip: If you notice an alteration to the vig, and therefore the odds, you might reasonably expect that the line will move in due course. That might mean jumping in early if you think the spread could alter to reduce the chances of one team, or waiting if it might increase the prospects of a winning bet. |
The outcome of any sporting event has an element of randomness built into it. That’s what makes sport so exciting after all. However, there’s no randomness in how sportsbooks set their odds.
Sophisticated data analysis systems are used to pinpoint the very ‘best guess’ of the probability of something happening. We might think of the vigorish as the bookmaker's cushion or margin of error because it can never predict what will happen with total surety.
It’s a basic necessity that bettors appraise the odds offered on a potential wager. A point spread bet of 2.5 might be a great play at odds of -110 but not so much at -120. That’s because the payout at -110 would be $0.91 for every dollar wagered but just $0.83 at -120.
At a glance, by reading the odds and considering the baked-in juice, we already have something of a betting strategy for whether a wager at two different odds is worth the risk.
Yes, reducing the vig makes a big difference to bettor’s profitability.
Reduced vig or juice means you get better odds and therefore a higher payout in winning wagers. Browsing the sportsbooks to understand how they apply juice is advantageous.
For example, if you find a betting site that regularly offers points spreads at -105 on both sides then it has less vig than a market elsewhere at -110. The reduced vig on -105 means you only have to wager $1,050 to win $1,000 rather than $1,100 at -110.
Just as an aside though, that difference in juice could result in less sharp lines. The -105 might be on a spread of +2.5 rather than +3.5 which could be harder to win.
Picking lower vig bets is also a good long-term strategy. Say you bet 50 NFL games against the spread in a season with a stake of $100 each time and your hit rate was 60%, at consistent odds of -105 you’d be up $2,857.14 compared with $2,608.70 at -115.
For a modest reduction in the juice that makes a difference of just shy of $250 and in betting every dollar won is a result.
There are a few reasons why sportsbooks might reduce the rate of vig, either on individual bets, in certain betting markets, or throughout all bets they offer. It’s worth looking out for betting options where the vig is reduced.
Here are some of the reasons you might find odds with reduced rates of vig:
We already know that sportsbooks will reduce the vig on a market in a bid to attract more wagers to one side. This makes sense for the bookmaker as it reduces their potential liabilities and risk.
Some sportsbooks have made a business decision to have less vig in their bets than their competitors. However, some books that have a reduced juice strategy might have higher wager limits than others as they seek to take in more cash to offset their lower commission cut, which is something to be aware of.
You’ll find sportsbooks that run reduced vig promos specifically for certain games or have squeezed juice on certain days of the week to entice bettors to check them out.
High-vig bets should generally be avoided as part of a long-term betting strategy because they reduce your potential profits and increase the break-even rate.
For example, a bet with odds of -120 has a break-even rate of 54.5%, which is higher than the 52.4% required for standard -110 odds. Over time, consistently placing bets with higher vig can erode your bankroll, even if your win rate remains consistent.
It’s usually best to avoid placing bets where the price includes higher rates of vigorish. Here’s why:
Lower Profit Margins: High-vig bets reduce the return on each winning wager, meaning you need to win more frequently to stay profitable.
Greater Long-Term Costs: Small differences in vig can have a significant impact over hundreds of wagers, especially for serious bettors aiming for consistent profits.
Reduced Value: High vig often indicates that the sportsbook is protecting itself against perceived risks, which can lead to less favorable odds for bettors.
In some cases, choosing a high-vig bet might be justified. Some of the main reasons why you might still want to place a bet, even though it includes a higher rate of vig, are as follows:
Promotional Offers: If a sportsbook is offering enhanced odds or a special bonus that offsets the higher vig, it could still provide value.
Unique Markets: High-vig bets on niche or hard-to-find markets might be worth it if the bettor has specialized knowledge or an edge in predicting outcomes.
Time Sensitivity: In live betting or rapidly changing markets, a high-vig bet might be acceptable to secure a favorable position before the odds shift further.
You don’t always need to calculate the specific level of vig for every bet you want to place. There are a few ways you can generally avoid placing bets with higher rates of juice:
Line Shopping: Compare odds at multiple sportsbooks to find the lowest vig available.
Focus on Standard Markets: Bet types like point spreads and totals typically have lower vig compared to futures and parlays.
Monitor Market Movements: High vig is often used to balance uneven action. Watch for changes and bet when the vig is reduced.
When betting on sports, understanding vig is essential for making informed and profitable decisions, particularly over the longer term. Here are some key tips and takeaways to use within your betting strategy:
Different sportsbooks offer varying odds and vig. Compare options to find the best value for your wagers.
Bet types like spreads and totals typically have lower vig compared to parlays or futures. Prioritize these markets for consistent profitability.
Know the percentage of bets you need to win at a given set of odds to break even. For example, at -110, you need to win 52.4% of your bets.
Futures markets often carry higher vig due to the number of competitors. Always calculate implied probabilities and compare sportsbooks for the best prices.
Look for sportsbooks or promotions offering reduced juice, such as -105 lines, which can significantly impact your long-term returns.
Changes in vig can indicate where the money is going. Use this information to time your bets strategically.
Vig is calculated by converting the odds into implied probabilities, adding them together, and subtracting 100%. The remainder represents the vig or juice percentage included in the odds.
No, vig can vary widely between sportsbooks and bet types. This is why line shopping (comparing odds at different sportsbooks) is an important strategy for serious bettors.
Futures and parlays have higher vig because they involve greater uncertainty and more outcomes. Sportsbooks use higher vig to manage their risk and ensure profitability across these less predictable bet types.
To calculate the vig on a parlay, break down the individual implied probabilities of each leg, calculate their combined probability, and compare it to the odds offered by the sportsbook. The difference reveals the vig.
Yes, the vig is factored into the odds, so it’s "paid" regardless of whether you win or lose. For example, with -110 odds, the vig is included in the payout calculation, meaning you’re essentially paying it as part of the bet structure.
While rare, sportsbooks might temporarily offer negative vig as part of promotions to attract bettors. In such cases, the sportsbook essentially gives you slightly better odds than the true probabilities.
A 10% vig means that the sportsbook’s commission is equivalent to 10% of the wagered amount. For example, in a standard -110 bet, you’re betting $110 to win $100, with $10 representing the vig.
A "good" vig is typically considered to be lower than the standard -110, such as -105 or even +100 (no vig). Lower vig bets reduce the break-even percentage and increase your potential profitability.
If a straight bet pushes, you’ll have your stake returned with no juice taken off. It is worth checking the small print at your chosen sportsbook for how they handle multi-line bets though. Some might class a tie as a loss rather than a push and conclude that a parlay including a pushed leg is a losing bet and then you’d pay the juice.
Reduced vig or reduced juice refers to sportsbooks offering lower-than-standard vig on certain bets. For example, instead of the usual -110 odds, you might see -105, meaning you’d only wager $105 to win $100, increasing your potential profitability.
A no juice spread is one without any vig or bookmaker commission applied. They’ll usually be offered at odds of +100.
A no juice moneyline is a bet without the sportsbook taking a fee for handling it. A no juice moneyline indicates that the oddsmakers believe each side has a dead equal chance of winning, reflected in a price of +100 for both.
To remove vig from American odds, first convert them to implied probability (remove the ‘-’ sign if you have negative odds and add the two together. Whatever the resultant figure is above 100% is the juice. To get rid of the juice we then divide all implied probabilities by the overall percent.
A juiced line refers to odds where the vig has been increased, often to discourage bets on one side of the wager. For example, a standard -110 line might become -120, increasing the commission the sportsbook collects.
