If you are interested in learning your way around the sports betting industry or are just a beginner, you will first need to learn what “Juice” is. Juice, also known as “vig” or vigorish in sports betting, is the cut a sportsbook or a bookie takes from every bet.
Explaining Juice In Sports Betting
Juice is the sportsbooks’ or casinos’ greatest edge, and ultimately that is how they continue to make profits over the long haul. The Sportsbook’s main goal is to try and get an equal amount of money on both sides of a bet. The way they do that is by applying Juice to every bet. It can vary between sports and types of bets, but the most common juice amount is (-110). Examples below.
- Miami Dolphins -2.5 (-110)
- New York Jets +2.5 (-110)
What that (-110) means is you would have to bet $110 to win $100. If your bet wins, you collect $100, but if your bet loses, the house collects $110 and profits $10. While $10 does not seem like a lot, throughout thousands of wagers, it can add up.
Again, the house uses the juice to try and keep equal amounts of money on each side of the bet. Using the Dolphins and Jets example above, if they start seeing large amounts of bets or money coming in on the Dolphins at -2.5 they will adjust the juice to -120 or maybe move the Jets odds down +100 (even) to entice bettors to place money on the Jets +2.5. New Lines would look like this:
- Miami Dolphins -2.5 (-120)
- New York Jets (+100)
So now Dolphins’ backers would have to risk $120 to win $100, and bettors wanting to bet on the Jets would only have to bet $100 to win $100.
Now, if money bets are still coming on the Dolphins, they could ultimately adjust the spread, and normally the juice or vig would reset with the new spread. Below would be an example of this:
- Miami Dolphins -3 (-110)
- New York Jets +3 (-110)
How To Calculate Juice
Calculating juice is just adding up the implied probabilities of both teams or both sides and adding them and then subtracting 100. When placing bets, you will never have to calculate the juice. The casinos or sportsbooks will do that automatically. But, if you are interested in how it is calculated and want to try it yourself, we can use the formulas below from The Action Network.
Use the following formula for anything with a minus sign in front of it, but drop the negative sign.
Negative Odds / (Negative Odds + 100) * 100
For anything with a plus sign, use this to get the implied probability.
100 / (Positive Odds + 100) * 100
The most Common juice is -110. Using the first formula, we get
110 / (110 + 100) * 100 = 52.4%
52.4% tells us that we have to win our bets 52.4% of the time to generate a profit long term.
MyBookie is a very popular online sportsbook that offers a variety of bets and odds that are competitive across the market. Be sure to read our complete review of MyBookie.
Juice In Different Bets
Normally, there is juice on almost every type of wager. Below are two other examples where there is juice.
Futures
Using the Super Bowl as an example of a Futures bet. You may be licking your chops seeing the long odds, but what people fail to realize, the juice is calculated into those odds.
Steve Petrella from the Action Network explained it the best; Odds are just the sum of the probability for all the outcomes offered. Every NFL team has odds to win the Super Bowl, meaning there are 32 possible winners, each assigned a probability.
When you add up the current Super Bowl probabilities from the table below, it comes to 123%, much higher than 100%. This means that the sportsbooks are taking 23% of every dollar wagered.
TEAM | ODDS | Probability |
Bills | +250 | 28.57% |
Eagles | +500 | 16.67% |
Chiefs | +700 | 12.50% |
Buccaneers | +1500 | 6.25% |
49ers | +1500 | 6.25% |
Vikings | +1600 | 5.88% |
Cowboys | +1800 | 5.26% |
Ravens | +1800 | 5.26% |
Bengals | +2200 | 4.35% |
Packers | +3000 | 3.23% |
Rams | +3000 | 3.23% |
Chargers | +3000 | 3.23% |
Dolphins | +3000 | 3.23% |
Giants | +4000 | 2.44% |
Titans | +4000 | 2.44% |
Raiders | +4000 | 2.44% |
Patriots | +8000 | 1.23% |
Cardinals | +8000 | 1.23% |
Jets | +8000 | 1.23% |
Browns | +10000 | 0.99% |
Seahawks | +10000 | 0.99% |
Broncos | +10000 | 0.99% |
Jaguars | +10000 | 0.99% |
Falcons | +15000 | 0.66% |
Colts | +15000 | 0.66% |
Saints | +15000 | 0.66% |
Commanders | +20000 | 0.5% |
Panters | +20000 | 0.5% |
Lions | +25000 | 0.4% |
Steelers | +50000 | 0.2% |
Bears | +50000 | 0.2% |
Texans | 100000 | 0.1% |
MoneyLine
Juice can also be found on Moneyline bets. You can use the same formula we used to calculate the juice on those Moneyline bets. Let’s use the MLB involving the Phillies and Astros in which the Astros are favored as an example.
- Philadelphia Phillies +120
- Houston Astros -140
By using the formulas above, we now have found the implied probability of the Phillies winning, which is 45.45%, and the Astros 58.33%. That adds up to 103.78% meaning the books have a 3.78% edge.
Removing Juice
If you want to get technical at looking into implied probabilities you can also remove the juice and get a good look at what the market really thinks of each side. Use the formula below to remove any juice.
Team A Implied Probability / (Team A IP + Team B IP)
Phillies: 45.45% / (45.45% + 58.33%) = 44%
Astros: 58.33% / (58.33% + 45.45%) = 56%
Best Reduced Juice Sportsbooks
Whether you are a beginner or a pro, you should always shop for the best line and the best-priced juice. Just like when you are in the market for a new vehicle. Normally you don’t buy a car from the first dealership you visit; you shop around looking for the best deal price. Apply those habits when betting on sports.
Just to show you how important it is to find the lowest price juice is, let’s say you placed $1000 on the Dodgers -115. Your return, if you won, would be $869.57. If you did some shopping and found the Dodgers -105, your return would jump up to $952.38. That’s a difference of +$82.81. You can really build up your bankroll by looking for the lowest juice price.
Shop the top online sportsbooks for the US to help you find the best odds.