What Is Vig In Sports Betting?
The Hidden Tax On Every Bet You Place.

1. What Is Vig?

Vig — short for vigorish — is the commission a sportsbook charges on every wager. It's also called the juice or the hold. It's not a separate fee you see on your receipt. It's hidden inside the odds. When a book posts any line, they've already built in their profit. You pay it on every single bet, whether you win or lose.

2. How -110 / -110 Generates Profit

A fair coin-flip market would price both sides at +100 (even money). Sportsbooks price both sides at -110 instead. Here's what that does:

If $10,000 is wagered equally on both sides, the book pays out $9,090.90 to winners — pocketing roughly $909 on a market where they took zero risk.

3. How Vig Destroys Long-Term Profitability

Imagine you bet $100 per game, 1,000 times a year. You pick randomly — winning exactly 50% of the time.

You broke even on picks and still lost $4,545. That's the vig at work. To profit, you need to win more than 52.4% — just to overcome the margin before generating any actual profit.

4. How To Calculate Vig Yourself

Convert each side's odds to implied probability, then add them together. Anything above 100% is vig.

5. Why No-Vig Probability Changes How You Evaluate Bets

Once you remove the vig, you see the true market probability — what sharp money actually implies about the outcome. If your own model gives the over a 62% chance and no-vig says 57%, you have a genuine edge. If your model says 55% and no-vig says 57%, you're just paying extra to be on the wrong side. No-vig math converts odds from marketing language back into honest probability.