Vig, also known as juice or vigorish, is the built-in commission or transaction fee that a sportsbook charges for accepting a wager on an event.
How Sportsbooks Calculate and Apply the Vig
Rather than billing a transparent surcharge on each ticket, operators embed the vig directly into the betting lines. This pricing mechanism inflates the sum of implied probabilities for all possible outcomes above 100 percent, creating an expected mathematical edge for the operator when wagering action is balanced.
A standard point spread market illustrates this mechanic:
- Two evenly matched sides are typically listed at odds of -110 on both sides.
- A bettor must risk $110 to win $100 in profit on either team.
- If one bettor wagers $110 on Team A and another wagers $110 on Team B, the bookmaker collects $220 in total handle.
- The winning bettor receives the $110 stake back plus $100 in profit, leaving the operator with a $10 surplus when action balances evenly.
Converting -110 odds into implied probability yields approximately 52.38 percent per outcome. When combined, the total implied probability reaches 104.76 percent. The 4.76 percent excess above a theoretical 100 percent market represents the operator overround generated by the juice.
Risk Impact and Long-Term Break-Even Thresholds
The existence of the vig directly raises the performance level required to sustain wagering capital. In a hypothetical market with zero commission, a bettor needs a 50.00 percent win rate on even-money wagers to break even. Against standard -110 juice lines, that required break-even threshold increases to approximately 52.38 percent over a large sample of wagers.
A related concept is market hold. While vig refers to the theoretical commission embedded within fixed price odds, realized hold is the actual percentage of total handle that a sportsbook retains after all outcomes settle, which fluctuates based on uneven wagering volume and actual game results.