Juice Sports Betting
If you are just starting out in your sports betting adventure, you might have heard the terms “juice” or “vig” many times, but likely don't know what it means. Here we will explain what is juice (or what is vig) and how it all works in the sports betting world.
WHAT DOES JUICE MEAN IN THE CONTEXT OF SPORTS BETTING? The initial objective of anyone who starts their adventure in sports betting is definitely making money. We can treat it as a hobby, or even as a leisure activity, or we can be purely professional, but at the end of the day, we all want to be profitable. How Juice Works. When looking at a sports bet, you see many things in the sports betting site client. Of course the teams you would be betting on are listed, along with the line and the total. Another figure that is posted is the odds of that bet. That is where you can find the “juice”. Let’s take a look at a few examples of sports.
What is Juice? Juice Explained
Juice or “vig” is simply the percentage a sportsbook “charges” for offering odds on sports betting events.
As we all know, there are no membership fees to join and bet at a sportsbook and contrary to the popular belief, the sportsbooks don't make money from the people that lost their bets. Well, we should probably say that their goal is not to have losers betting, but have equal amounts on each side of the bet. Naturally, this is nearly impossible to achieve, so the sportsbooks do sometimes make money from people losing their bets and other times can get obliterated by winning bettors. But that's a topic of a different conversation.
Getting back on track to the “juice” and “vig”, which are two sports betting terms describing the exact same thing. The sportsbooks have built-in profit maker in the odds, which many bettors refer to as “juice” or vig, which is short for vigorish. The most simple way of explaining and understanding juice in betting is to think of it as a percentage of each bet the book charges the bettor, or if you are a poker player – look at it as a rake.
How Juice works? / How vig works?
With most betting lines, the juice is not really apparent, but you can spot it and understand it completely if you look at one popular betting option -the over/under bet. If you pick a sport and look at the over/under lines, let's say and NBA game, you will see something like:
Total 201.5 points
Over: -110
Under: -110
You know how the total bet works – the sportsbook selects the most likely total of the scores of each team and then offers odds on whether the actual score will be over or under that total. If the sportsbook's odds makers did their job, both over and under will have 50% chance of occurring. Yet if you look at the odds, you will see that they are not “even”, as one would expect, but -110, i.e. you have to bet $110 to win $100. Where did the extra $10 come from? Well, my friend, that's exactly what the juice is and how the vig works. The sportsbook tries to get even amount of money on each side of the bet, in this example case the over/under on the NBA game, and juices up the odds to make profit from both sides of the bet. If ten people bet to win $100 each on over (i.e. $110 wagered per bettor) and ten people bet to win $100 on under, in the end, the money will simply travel from one side to the other. But the sportsbook, thanks to the juice, will make cool $200 ($10 vig on every bet) fee for offering the odds. While it's not as easy to see the juice on most betting lines, know that it's always there.
Low Juice Sportsbooks
While every sportsbook will charge vig, or have juice in the odds, otherwise it would be one very risky and most likely, unprofitable operation, not all sportsbooks have the same juice in the odds. The industry standard among the top sportsbooks is the so-called dime line. You can read more about it in our betting glossary. And there are betting sites with extremely high juice, praying on unsuspecting recreational bettors, those should be avoided at all costs, no matter how little you may bet. There is no need to throw away your money and we will never have a high vig sportsbook listed among the sportsbooks we recommend.
On the other side, there are low juice sportsbooks, although not many of them, to be perfectly honest. One of the most popular and reputable low-juice sportsbook is 5Dimes, which has always offered low juice lines on all their betting markets and is The Low Juice Sportsbook for US players. Another trusted low juice sportsbook is Pinnacle, which unfortunately does not allow players from the USA to join and bet with them. Those two sportsbooks are a perfect example of low juice sportsbooks and you can visit them to compare odds with other betting sites to see examples of the vig we explained earlier.
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When we talk about juice, not it’s not those little packets of sugar water that you jab cheap straws through and drink. We’re talking about juice in the context of sports betting. What is “juice” in sports betting.
Juice is important to understand because if you pay more juice, you get paid less when you win.
Let’s break down what “juice” means, why it matters for bettors, and how you can keep juice in mind when making your wagers.
Okay, What is Juice
You may look at your bookmaker as a greasy slimeball, but the fact is, if you love gambling, there is no way you would be enjoying the love of your life without having a bookmaker. Bookmakers offer their service at a premium. Juice, otherwise known as vigorish, is the amount of money a bookmaker takes from someone betting on a favorite as the money kept when the wager loses.
Confused? Okay, let’s do an example.
Let’s say there are two teams: Team A and Team B. Team A is a -150 favorite. Team B is a +125 favorite.
To win $100, you have to risk $150 on Team A. Whereas, and if you just wager $100 on Team B, you get an extra $25 should win as a reward for taking the underdog. However, the underdog has an implied probability of losing.
Should bettors who laid $150 to collect $100 on Team A lose, the sportsbook will use that extra money collected from the costly price on betting the favorite, the “juice” to pay out the winning side and collect whatever remains, assuming the book didn’t get crushed.
Juice is important because just the movement of betting odds in one direction or another can drastically affect the betting decisions of retail bettors.
Price Hunting
When hunting for prices, bettors will look to find the best juice around. The tighter the spread between the underdog and favorite on the odds, the cheaper the might will be. The bigger the gap, the greater the disparity.
This means a big deal because if you have smaller bankrolls, risking more than you’re comfortable with to bet a side can be a problem, but if you’re looking to get down on a game you really like, patience rewards bettors who are able to find the best number.
Long-term, you can risk less to get paid more, and this is where finding the best lines is essential. Why pay $155 to win $100 when you can pay $130 to win $100 elsewhere?
For the 10 or 20 dollar bettor, juice may not mean much, but when you’re betting in the tens of thousands when a few cents can be the difference between betting $18,000 or $13,5000, then you’re talking more significant swings of money.
Best Online Betting Services
The Takeaway
Lowest Juice Sports Betting
Juice, remember, is the necessary evil of betting with a bookie, but at the end of the day, it’s something to keep in mind when making your wagers. If you’re paying way too much at one book, you’re getting ripped off. Always hunt for bargains, and when you find them, pound numbers hard so you can make the most possible while risking the least as you can.