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Good morning, students! Today’s MyTopSportsbooks sports betting tutorial is on the exciting subject of the ‘vig’ (also known as the ‘juice‘). This handy guide will address how it affects your bets, answer key questions such as “what does vig mean?” and “how to calculate vig?”, and explain the concept of no-vig betting. The concept of vigorish is somewhat abstract, but it is a crucial one in the online sports betting landscape that you’ll need to get your head around.
Without further ado, let’s begin!
What is the Vig?
Gamblers will likely have heard this term before. In most cases, it refers to the online sportsbook’s, bookie’s, or casino’s cut for handling the action on a sports wager. To break even when betting at -110 odds, you must win at least 52.38% of your bets due to the built-in ‘vig’. The online sportsbook or oddsmakers creates an advantage for the ‘house’ to make a profit, and this advantage is built into every bet.
We have been referring to the NFL for our examples, and today is no different with a hypothetical NFL betting line. In today’s example, let’s say the Buffalo Bills are playing the Kansas City Chiefs, and the sportsbook or oddsmakers has the game listed as pick ‘em -110 for both teams. Whichever side of a bet you take, it costs $110 to win $100 for a total of $210 returned on a winning bet. Suppose you lose, you’re out the original wager of $110, and that is the bottom line. The extra $10 on the bet is the cut for the bookmakers, casinos, or online sportsbooks you choose to place your bet with. All the big sportsbooks like FanDuel, BetMGM, DraftKings and Caesars charge a nominal fee to handle your action. Often sports betting sites will provide a promo code for free bets that can be used on MLB, NHL, college football bets.
Why Do Bookmakers Take a Cut?
Online sportsbooks, casinos and bookies are businesses; like other businesses, they are in business to make money. They can’t live on losing bets alone, hence the vig to cover expenses and protect them from a bad beat that happens occasionally. In a perfect world, the bookmaker wants to see even betting distribution. That way, they make money no matter which side cashes a winning ticket. The vig is a valuable tool for online sportsbooks and bookies to employ, and every gambler should understand how the vig factors into their bets. To escape the vig, you must find someone to make a bet with like, a friend, who might take your bet straight up.
What is No-Vig Sports Betting?
Now things get a little more complicated. A no-vig line represents the true implied probability of an event occurring, without any bookmaker margin. Before we get there, we need to understand where the break-even data point is. The break-even point equation is the Bet/Winningsx100 = Break Even%. Now, I will break it down even further on a -110 bet, the coin flip. $110/$210×100 = 52.3% for the break-even point. To get to the no-vig line, No-Vig = 52.3 / (52.3 + 52.3), No-Vig = 50%.
Do Odds Changes Affect the Vig?
Certainly, odds changes will affect the vigorish, and it is the responsibility of every sports bettor to shop around for the best odds that cost the least amount to bet (the vig). In our example using the Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs, both teams were -110 for a significant percentage of 4.5. If you odds shop, you might find the game at -105 for a 2.3 vig percentage. Bettors will see a significant disparity when playing the Moneyline, especially when heavy favorites are involved.
Are the Vig and Overround the Same Thing?
The answer is yes and no, but similar. The vig is the fee taken for the action that a bettor places with the book. The overround is the aggregate total of odds on specific sports events. Calculating the probabilities of a particular event for each team to win is how the odds are set for each game. The odds consistently surpass 100 percent, most times 105 percent, and the extra 5 percent is the profit considered the overround.
How do I calculate the Vig?
Many online sportsbooks have a calculator to determine the price of the vig, and for total implied probability. If you are doing the calculations at home, you first need to find the implied probability of the game you are betting on. We will use the NBA as our example. On the NBA Moneyline, The LA Lakers are -300 against the Dallas Mavericks +200.
- The formula for implied probability (Lakers) is 300/400, and it becomes 75 percent of winning.
- The formula for implied probability (Mavericks) is 100/300, and it becomes 33.3 percent of winning.
- Next, add both implied probability results for a total of 108 percent. If the total implied probability is 108%, that means the bookmaker expects to collect $108 in wagers for every $100 paid out.
- To get the vig: 1-(1/overround) x 100. In this case, that’s 1- (1/108) x 100 = 0.740, or a vig of 7.40 percent.
How Does Vig Work with a Parlay Bet?
A parlay bet is one bet that has two or more games on it. All games picked must win for a sports better to receive a parlay payout. If you look at a parlay odds chart with -110, it looks like this:
- 2 Teams, Potential Payout +260, (13-5)
- 3 Teams, Potential Payout +600 (6-1)
- 4 Teams, Potential Payout +1000(10-1)
- 5 Teams, Potential Payout +2000 (20-1)
- 6 Teams, Potential Payout +4000 (40-1)
You can make a parlay bet with as many as 12 teams (+6000) and get an excellent return for a minimal bet, but the vig is higher than a straight bet, and you don’t get true odds. For a three-team parlay bet, you get 6-1, but in reality, the odds are 7-1; the difference is in the vig.
The Importance of Shopping Around
When shopping for the best vig percentage, we at MTS recommend you review some of these online sportsbooks to find the best value bet you can make. Shopping around is the difference between a casual bettor and a sharp. The casual bettor will see the vig as the cost of doing business while the sharp will seek value and savings and the savings add up over years of betting.
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