Vig / Hold Calculator

Vig — short for vigorish, also called juice, margin or overround — is the fee a sportsbook builds into its prices. It is how a book makes money without needing to predict anything.

You pay it in the odds rather than as a charge. A coin-flip market should pay even money on both sides, but a book prices it −110 / −110: you risk $110 to win $100 either way. Those two prices imply 52.38% each, 104.76% in total, and the 4.76% that should not exist is the vig.

It is the single reason winning half your bets loses money. Beat the vig and you profit; most bettors never clear it.

The vig — also the juice, the margin, the overround — is how a sportsbook makes money. It does not need to predict games; it needs to price both sides so that whichever way the result falls, balanced action leaves it ahead. The mechanism is simple: it offers you less than the true odds on every outcome.

You can see it by adding the market up. Convert each price to an implied probability and total them. A fair market totals exactly 100%. A real one totals more, and the excess is the margin. A standard −110 / −110 line totals 104.76%.

Two numbers get quoted from that, and they are not the same. The overround is the raw excess: 4.76%. The hold is the share of total money wagered the book keeps: 4.76 / 104.76 = 4.55%. Hold is the number that matters, because it is what actually comes out of the pot — a book with balanced action on a −110 line keeps $45.50 of every $1,000 wagered, not $47.60. Both are shown here; when a book or an article says “vig” without specifying, it is usually quoting the overround.

Checking it is worth the ten seconds. Margin varies enormously — 2% on a major-league side market at a sharp book, 4.5% at a typical one, and well past 10% on player props, alternate lines and long-shot futures. Two books can show the same headline price and hold very different amounts once you look at the other side. The cheapest book you can bet at is a structural edge that requires no handicapping at all.

The standard spread: −110 / −110. Each side implies 110 / 210 = 52.38%, so the market totals 104.76%. The overround is 4.76%, and the hold is 4.76 / 104.76 = 4.55%. On $1,000 of balanced action the book keeps about $45.50.

A reduced-juice book offering −105 / −105 totals 102.44%: a hold of 2.38%, roughly half. Nothing about your handicapping changed — you simply kept an extra 2.17% of everything you wagered. Over a season of volume that difference is larger than most bettors’ entire edge.

Then a player prop at −130 / +105: 56.52% + 48.78% = 105.30%, a 5.03%hold. And props go much higher. If you cannot find a market’s other side to check, assume the margin is worse than a main line, not better.

What is the difference between hold and overround?

Overround is how far the market’s implied probabilities exceed 100%. Hold is that excess as a share of total money wagered, which is what the book actually keeps. A −110 / −110 line has a 4.76% overround and a 4.55% hold.

What is a normal amount of vig?

About 4.5% hold on main markets at a typical US sportsbook, and 2–3% at a low-margin or exchange-style book. Player props, alternate lines and futures routinely run 6–15% or more.

Does the sportsbook always keep the hold?

Only with balanced action on both sides. If the money is lopsided the book carries real risk on the result, which is why lines move — it is trying to get back to balance and lock in the margin.

How do I avoid paying it?

You cannot avoid it entirely, but you can shop for the cheapest version of the same bet. Comparing hold across books, and betting reduced-juice lines when they exist, is the lowest-effort improvement available to any bettor.

• What Is Vig? How Sportsbooks Actually Make MoneyThe margin built into every price, why two sides of a coin flip add up to more than 100%, and what it costs you per bet.10 min read
• Player Props: Why They Cost More Than You ThinkThe fastest-growing bet type is also the most expensive one on the board. What the margin actually is, and the one place the price is genuinely soft.10 min read
• Live Betting: Fast Markets, Wide PricesIn-play prices move on every possession and cost roughly twice what a pregame line does. Where the speed helps you, and where it is the point.9 min read
• Futures Betting: The Widest Margins on the BoardA twelve-team championship market holds 18% of every dollar staked — four times a point spread. What that buys, and how to get out early.9 min read

• No-Vig CalculatorStrip the bookmaker margin out of a market to see the fair price behind it.
• Break-Even Win RateThe win rate a price needs before it makes you anything.
• Exchange CommissionWhat an exchange price is really worth after commission is taken off the winnings.
• Odds ConverterConvert American, decimal and fractional odds, with the implied probability of each price.