Vigorish
Vigorish is what a book charges to take your bet. From my side of the counter it is the whole business. The margin is thin, it is only earned over a lot of bets, and it is far bigger on some markets than on others.
A fee that never says so
A book sells a price on both sides of a game, and the vig, or juice, is what it charges for that, except that you will never see it written down as a charge, because it is folded into the odds where most players never think to look. The short version, with the standard -110 example, is on the page What is the vig?. This page is how the bookmaker sees it.
The same game at four prices
Take a game with no favorite. Turn each price into the percentage a player must win to break even, add the two sides, and whatever is over 100 belongs to the book.
| Price on both sides | A player must win | The two sides add to | The book's cut of the money bet |
|---|---|---|---|
| -105 | 51.22% | 102.44% | 2.38% |
| -110 | 52.38% | 104.76% | 4.55% |
| -115 | 53.49% | 106.98% | 6.52% |
| -120 | 54.55% | 109.09% | 8.33% |
Ten cents does not look like much on a screen. Going from -110 to -120 nearly doubles what the book takes out of every dollar, and when a book prices a prop at -120 both ways, that is exactly what it is doing. I always thought that was the cheapest trick on the board. It works anyway.
It has to be earned
The cut in that table is only locked in when the money is even on both sides. Two players, $110 each, one on each team: the book holds $220, pays the winner $210 and keeps $10 whoever wins.
That does not happen often. Usually the book has a lot more on one side, and then the vig stops being a fee and becomes an edge, which is a different animal altogether. Say a book writes 100 bets of $1,100 to win $1,000, all on games that are true coin flips, with nobody on the other side. Fifty lose and the book collects $55,000. Fifty win and it pays out $50,000. It keeps $5,000 from $110,000 bet, which is the same 4.55 percent.
Over 100 bets it comes out. Over one Sunday it may not. A bookmaker gets paid the vig the way a player gets paid an edge, slowly and only if the bankroll survives the bad weeks, and in my experience that is the part of the job nobody outside it believes. More on that under exposure.
Where it gets fat
The straight bet on a big game is the cheapest thing a book sells. The margin grows as the market gets harder for the player to check.
Props are often -115 or -120 both ways, and sometimes only one side is offered at all, so there is nothing to compare against. Parlays compound the cut with each leg: a five-teamer at -110 a leg costs over 20 percent. Futures are the fattest of the lot, because there are many outcomes and the percentages add up to far more than 100. To keep the sum simple, picture eight evenly matched teams, all priced +600 to win a title. A fair price for one chance in eight is +700. At +600 the eight prices add to 114.3 percent, and the book's cut is 12.5 percent.
None of this is hidden. It only takes a sum that most players don't do, and the no-vig calculator does it for you. I'd work out the cut on any market before betting it. Two prices, one sum.
Why the price differs between books
A book chooses its vig the way a shop chooses its markup.
A reduced-juice book deals -105 and lives on volume; it usually gives little in bonuses and takes bigger bets, because serious players are who it wants. A book aimed at the weekend player charges the full -110 or more and spends the difference on bonuses and advertising. Neither one is cheating you. They are after different players, and if you bet often I'd take the better price over the bonus every time, because a bonus is paid once and the vig is paid on every bet.
For a local bookie working on credit, the vig is his wage. He has no casino and no slot machines behind him. If his players bet -110 and break even on their picks, the juice is what he lives on.
Paying it on purpose
I'd keep the fat markets for small stakes. A prop at -120 needs 54.55 percent winners, which is a lot to ask of anybody. Set your bet size against your bankroll too, and set a loss limit before the games start: the vig makes sure the average player loses a little on every bet, so decide in advance how much that is allowed to be.
You will never bet without paying it. You can decide how much.