Juice (VIG)

Overview

“Juice,” or the vig, refers to skew that oddsmakers put on bets to ensure that they take home a profit in the long run. That’s where the term “The house always wins” comes from.

Understanding Juice

The easiest way to think of the vig is that it is a tax for every wager you place. A more mathematical explanation is that it is the sum of probabilities exceeding 100 percent including all available betting options in a market.

Bets with -110 odds have a 52.4 percent implied chance of hitting. Since sportsbooks set most two-way markets at -110/-110 odds, there is an implied 104.8 percent chance of either event occurring, even though there can never truly be more than a 100 percent chance of an event happening. That extra 4.8 percent, in this case, is the juice.