Juice / Vigorish (Vig)

Juice – also called vigorish or the vig – is the built-in commission a book charges to take a bet. It is not a separate line item on your slip. Instead, it is embedded in the odds, so the book earns regardless of which side wins. Juice is how books make money and stay open.

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

In a perfectly efficient, juice-free market, both sides of a 50/50 proposition would price at +100 (even money). The gap between the actual odds and those fair odds is the cost of placing the bet.

Example

A book 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. Cover, and you win $100 profit. Lose, and the book keeps your $110. Another bettor staked $110 on Team B at the same odds. The book holds $220 total and pays $210 to whichever wins, keeping a $10 margin.

If the same market priced at -105 each side, you would risk only $105 to win $100 – lower vig, cheaper bet.

Key Points

• Lower juice is better: Shopping for reduced-juice lines (such as -105 instead of -110) saves money over time and meaningfully lifts long-term profit.
• Juice varies by market and sport: Mainstream markets like NFL spreads usually carry tighter juice than niche markets or props, where the vig runs much higher.
• Vig is not the hold: Juice is the margin on a single side; the hold is the overall percentage the book keeps from total money wagered on a market.
• Implied probabilities expose the vig: Convert both sides to implied probabilities; when they sum above 100%, the excess is the total overround – the book’s combined margin.