Juice / Vigorish (Vig)

Juice, also called vigorish or just the vig, is the built-in commission a sportsbook charges for taking your bet. It’s never shown as a separate fee on your slip. Instead, it’s baked right into the odds, so the bookmaker makes money no matter which side wins. The juice is the main way sportsbooks turn a profit and keep the lights on.

The most common example shows up in standard spread and totals betting, where both sides sit at -110. At those odds, you have to risk $110 to win $100. If two bettors put equal money on opposite sides, the book takes in $220 in total stakes but only pays out $210 to the winner ($110 stake plus $100 profit). The leftover $10, about 4.55% of the total handle, is the bookmaker’s margin.

In a perfectly efficient market with no juice, both sides of a 50/50 proposition would sit at +100 (even money). The gap between the actual odds offered and these fair odds is what it costs you to place the bet.

Example

A sportsbook offers a college basketball spread with Team A at -5.5 (-110) and Team B at +5.5 (-110). You bet $110 on Team A. If Team A covers, you win $100 in profit. If you lose, the book keeps your $110. Meanwhile, another bettor put $110 on Team B at the same odds. The sportsbook holds $220 total and will pay $210 to whoever wins, keeping a $10 margin.

If that same market were offered at -105 on each side, you’d only need to wager $105 to win $100, meaning the vig is lower and the bet is cheaper for you.

Key Points

• Lower juice is better for you: Shopping for reduced-juice lines (like -105 instead of -110) saves money over time and really helps your long-term profit.
• Juice varies by market and sport: Mainstream markets like NFL spreads usually have tighter juice than niche markets or prop bets, where the vig can be a lot higher.
• The vig isn’t the same as the hold: Juice is the margin on a single side, while the hold is the overall percentage the sportsbook keeps from the total wagered on a market.
• Implied probabilities reveal the vig: Convert the odds for both sides of a market to implied probabilities, and when they add up to more than 100%, the extra is the total overround, the bookmaker’s combined margin.