What Does Vigorish (Vig) Mean and How It Affects Your Payout

Defining Vigorish and Its Origins

Vigorish is the fee a bookmaker charges for accepting a bet. It is the core of the sportsbook’s business model.

• Other Names: You will hear it called the juice, the cut, the take, or the margin. In casino poker, a similar fee taken from the pot is known as the rake.
• The Price: In its most common form, the vig is why you must risk $110 to win $100 on a point spread bet. That extra $10 is the sportsbook’s commission.
• Etymology: The word “vigorish” entered American slang from Yiddish (vigrish), which is derived from a Russian word, výigryš, meaning “winnings.” Historically, it was used in both legal and illicit contexts to describe the commission or predatory interest charged by bookies and loan sharks.

The practice became institutionalized in legalized betting in mid-century Las Vegas. Early sportsbooks charged about a 10% commission on wagers to cover operating costs and taxes. This is the direct origin of the modern standard of laying $11 to win $10.

How the Vig is Built Into Betting Odds

The vigorish is not a separate fee you pay upon placing a bet; it is baked into the odds provided by the sportsbook.Books intentionally set the odds so that the total implied probability of all outcomes is greater than 100%.

The Standard Example: -110 Odds

For a standard point spread or total, both sides are often listed at -110. Even if the teams are perfectly even, the odds are skewed:

• Each side at -110 carries an implied win probability of about 52.38%.
• When you add these implied probabilities together (52.38% + 52.38%), the total is 104.76%.
• The amount above $100\%$—4.76%—is called the overround or the bookmaker’s margin.

This 4.76% overround is effectively the vig or the house edge. If a sportsbook gets balanced action on both sides of a game, they will collect this 4.76% as profit regardless of the outcome.

Impact on Your Break-Even Rate

The vig means you must win more than 50% of your bets just to break even:

• To break even on an even-money bet ($\text{+100}$ odds), you need to win $50\%$ of the time.
• To break even on a bet with standard vig ($\text{-110}$ odds), you must win 52.38% of the time.

This extra $2.38$ percentage points you must win is the cost of the vig over the long term.

Vig in Different Bet Types

The amount of vig a sportsbook charges often varies depending on the type of bet:

The vig tends to be higher on exotic bets and futures because these markets are less liquid and attract more casual bettors who are less price-sensitive.

How Smart Bettors Handle the Vig

Experienced bettors (known as sharps) are acutely focused on minimizing the impact of vigorish.

1. Line Shopping

This is the most powerful tool against the vig. Bettors should compare odds across multiple sportsbooks for the same bet.

• If one book offers a spread at $\text{-110}$ and another offers it at $\text{-105}$, choosing $\text{-105}$ is always better.
• By consistently grabbing the lowest vig available in the market, you significantly improve your overall returns.

2. Hunting for Reduced Juice

Some competitive sportsbooks offer “reduced juice” lines, sometimes at $\text{-105}$ on both sides of a spread. This essentially halves the vig compared to the industry-standard $\text{-110}$ line, dramatically lowering your required break-even win rate to $\text{51.22%}$. Utilizing these offers is a key strategy for profitability.

3. Using No-Vig Calculators

Sharp bettors use online tools to remove the vig from a sportsbook’s odds to find the true implied probability of an event. They will only place a bet if their own calculated probability is high enough to justify making the bet and still overcome the house’s built-in commission. This helps them identify positive expected value ($\text{+EV}$) wagers.

4. Reading Line Shading

Sportsbooks know that the public tends to bet favorites, overs, and popular teams. They will often shade the line (charge extra vig) on these popular sides. Sharp bettors watch for this and often bet the less popular side—the underdog or the under—when the line becomes inflated with extra juice.

Vigorish is the cost of doing business in sports betting. By understanding its calculation and impact, you shift your approach from that of a casual bettor to a savvy consumer who always seeks to minimize the house’s edge.