What is the vig?
The vig is the bookmaker's cut, built into the price. At the standard -110 you lay $110 to win $100, and that extra $10 is how the book gets paid.
Where it sits
Take a game with no favorite. A fair price would be even money on both sides: bet $100, win $100. No book offers that. Both sides are priced at -110, so you risk $110 to win $100 whichever side you take.
Say one player takes each side for $110. The book is holding $220, and it pays the winner $210, which is his $110 back plus $100, leaving $10 over that is the vig, also called the juice. The book didn't need an opinion on the game. It needed two players who disagreed.
What it costs you
At -110 you have to win 52.38 percent of your bets to break even, not 50. That gap looks small, but over a season it is the whole difference between a player who wins and a player who pays for the lights. A bettor who hits 55 percent at -110 over a long stretch is doing very well, and I'd say so to his face.
On a market priced -110 both ways, the book's cut works out to 4.55 percent of every dollar wagered. That is the theory. In practice a book is rarely balanced, so what it actually keeps, the hold, swings from week to week.
It isn't always -110
- Reduced juice. Some books deal -105 both ways. Your break-even drops to 51.22 percent.
- Extra juice. At -115 both ways it climbs to 53.49 percent. Props are often priced like this, or worse.
- Moneylines. The vig hides in the gap between the two prices. A favorite at -150 with the underdog at +130 is a fair price of about -138 and +138 with the book's cut laid on top.
- Parlays. The cut compounds with every leg you add. That is why every book pushes them.
Paying less of it
You can't avoid the vig. You can pay less of it, and I think it is the easiest money in betting, because the same game is often -110 at one book and -105 at another and the only work involved is looking.
Put a number on it. Bet 500 games in a season to win $100 each and lose half of them, and laying -105 instead of -110 on those 250 losers saves you $1,250, without your having to pick a single extra winner to get it. I'd take that over any tip I ever heard.
The vig is the price of getting a bet down. Know what you're paying.
Related questions
What does minus 110 mean?
Minus 110 means you risk $110 to win $100. It is the standard price on a point spread or a total, and the extra $10 is the book's cut.
Why do odds move?
Odds move because the book's risk changes or the information does. Money moves a line, most of all money from bettors the book respects. So do injuries, weather and what the other books are dealing.
How do bookies make money?
A bookie makes money by charging for every bet. The charge is built into the price: you lay $110 to win $100, and across thousands of bets that extra $10 is his living. He does not need to pick winners. He needs volume.