Updated July 2026.

What Is Vig in Betting? Juice and Vigorish Explained (With Math)

Vig in betting is the built-in margin a sportsbook charges for taking your wager. It is baked into the odds on both sides of a market, which is why a bet priced at -110 requires you to risk $110 to win $100 instead of an even $100 for $100. Vig is also called juice or vigorish, and on a standard two-way market at -110 it works out to about 4.55%.

If you only learn one thing about sportsbook math, make it this. The vig is the reason a coin-flip bet does not pay like a coin flip, and it is the single biggest edge the book holds over every recreational bettor. Understand it and you can measure exactly what each bet is costing you.

What does vig mean?

Vig is short for vigorish, a word that traces back through bookmaking slang. According to Wikipedia's entry on vigorish, it is "the fee charged by a bookmaker (or bookie) for accepting a gambler's wager." You will hear it called several things that all mean the same cost: juice, the cut, the take, the margin, or the hold.

Here is the important part. The book does not send you an invoice for the vig. It is hidden inside the price. When you see a point spread listed at -110 on both teams, the book is not offering a fair 50/50 market. It is charging you a small commission on every dollar, win or lose, by shading the odds against you on both sides.

How is vig calculated? The -110 example

To find the vig, you convert each price to its implied probability, add the two sides together, and measure how far past 100% the total goes. Any market with no vig would add up to exactly 100%. The overflow is the juice.

American odds convert to implied probability like this. For a negative (favorite) price, implied probability equals the odds divided by the odds plus 100. For -110 that is 110 divided by (110 + 100), which is 110/210, or 52.38%.

Now price both sides of a spread at -110, the most common setup in US sports betting:

• Team A at -110: implied probability 52.38%
• Team B at -110: implied probability 52.38%
• Combined market: 104.76%

A fair market would total 100%. This one totals 104.76%, so the market is 4.76 percentage points "overround." Divide that overflow by the total (4.76 / 104.76) and you get the true cost to the bettor: about 4.55%. That is the vig.

A worked $100 example

Say you bet Team A -110 for $110 to win $100, and a friend bets Team B -110 for $110 to win $100. The book collects $220 in risk. Whoever wins gets back $210 (their $110 stake plus $100 profit). The book keeps the leftover $10 no matter which side hits. That $10 on $220 handled is the vig in dollars, and it is why the house does not care who wins a balanced market.

What win rate do you need to beat the vig?

This is where the juice bites. Because -110 carries an implied probability of 52.38%, you must win 52.38% of your -110 bets just to break even. Not 50%. Every bet under that number is a slow leak.

The gap between 50% (a true coin flip) and 52.38% (your break-even) is the vig expressed as a win rate. Long-term winning bettors are not hitting 65% of their bets. Many grind out a profit by clearing 53% to 55%, which is only a few points above break-even. That is how thin the margins are, and it is why paying less vig matters so much.

Vig by price: a comparison table

Not every market is priced at -110. Reduced-juice books and lopsided moneylines change the math. Here is how the vig moves with the price on a two-way market.

Two-way market	Implied prob (sum)	Vig	Break-even (favorite side)
-105 / -105 (reduced juice)	102.44%	2.38%	51.22%
-110 / -110 (standard)	104.76%	4.55%	52.38%
-120 / +100	104.55%	4.35%	54.55%
-150 / +130	103.48%	3.36%	60.00%

The takeaway: a -105 market costs you roughly half the vig of a -110 market. Over hundreds of bets, that difference is the line between profit and slow bleed.

How do you remove the vig to find the fair line?

Sharp bettors do not just measure the vig, they strip it out to see what the book really thinks. This is called finding the no-vig or fair line, and it is the backbone of measuring closing line value (CLV).

The method: take each side's implied probability and divide it by the market total. On a -120 / +100 market, the raw implied probabilities are 54.55% and 50.00%, adding to 104.55%. Divide each by 104.55%:

• Favorite fair probability: 54.55 / 104.55 = 52.18%
• Underdog fair probability: 50.00 / 104.55 = 47.82%

Those two now add to 100%, the vig is gone, and you are left with the book's honest read on the game. If your own estimate says the favorite should win more than 52.18% of the time, you have found value. If not, the vig has quietly priced you out.

Why parlays carry the most vig

The vig does not stay flat when you combine bets. It compounds. Each leg of a parlay carries its own juice, and stacking legs multiplies the house edge rather than adding it. A three-leg parlay of -110 bets does not cost you 4.55% of vig, it costs far more, which is exactly why sportsbooks market parlays so aggressively.

The single-bet vig of 4 to 5 percent is already a headwind. The effective hold on multi-leg and same-game parlays runs much higher, which is why disciplined bettors treat them as entertainment, not as a core strategy. If you want to keep more of your bankroll working, straight bets at the best available price are almost always the cheaper path. This ties directly into bankroll management and unit sizing.

How to pay less vig

You cannot avoid the vig entirely at a regulated book, but you can shrink it. This is one of the clearest edges available to a recreational bettor, and it requires zero handicapping skill.

• Line shop. The same game is priced differently across books. One might offer -105 where another sits at -115. Holding accounts at several regulated sportsbooks and taking the best number on every bet is the simplest way to cut your effective vig. It is the same discipline behind understanding how moneyline prices work.
• Favor reduced-juice markets. Some books run promotions or standing offers at -105 on spreads and totals. Half the vig, same bet.
• Skip the parlay tax. Break a parlay into straight bets when you can. You lose the lottery-ticket payout but keep far more expected value.
• Bet into sharper, lower-margin markets. Major markets like NFL sides and totals carry thinner vig than obscure props, where books pad the juice because the bettor cannot easily price shop.

According to Wikipedia's entry on vigorish, the vig is "the fee charged by a bookmaker (or bookie) for accepting a gambler's wager." Named plainly, it is simply the price of admission, and the goal is to pay as little of it as possible.

Vig, hold, and margin: are they the same thing?

Close, but not identical. Vig usually refers to the theoretical margin baked into a single market's prices. Hold is what the book actually keeps after all bets settle, which can be higher or lower than the vig depending on how the money came in. Margin and overround are just other names for the same built-in edge. For a bettor, the practical point is the same: the number over 100% is what you are paying, and lower is better. For deeper context on how books set and move these prices, FOX Sports keeps a plain-English explainer.

Frequently asked questions

What is vig in betting in simple terms?

Vig is the sportsbook's commission, hidden inside the odds. It is why you risk $110 to win $100 on a standard bet instead of $100 to win $100. It is also called juice or vigorish.

How much is the vig on a standard bet?

On a two-way market priced at -110 on both sides, the vig is about 4.55%. That is the standard for point spreads and totals at most US sportsbooks.

What win percentage do I need to beat the vig at -110?

You need to win 52.38% of your -110 bets to break even. Anything below that loses money over time, purely because of the juice.

Is vig the same as juice?

Yes. Vig, juice, and vigorish all describe the same thing: the margin the sportsbook builds into its prices. Different words, identical cost.

How do I calculate the no-vig fair odds?

Convert both sides to implied probability, add them up, then divide each side by that total. The two adjusted numbers will sum to 100%, giving you the fair line with the vig removed.

The bottom line

The vig is the quiet tax on every bet you place, and it never sleeps. At standard -110 pricing it costs about 4.55% and forces a 52.38% break-even win rate. You cannot make it disappear, but you can measure it, strip it out to find fair value, and pay less of it by line shopping and avoiding parlay juice. That is the difference between betting blind and betting sharp. Keep building from here with our Betting Education guides, and treat every price you see as a number to be beaten, not accepted.

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Responsible gambling: 21+ where legal. Bet only what you can afford to lose. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER. Odds and prices in this guide are illustrative and change constantly, so always confirm the live number at a licensed US sportsbook before betting.