The Vig: The House's Quiet Tax

Flip a fair coin at a sportsbook and both heads and tails will be priced -110. Each implies 52.4%; together that's 104.8%. Reality only has 100% to give — the overage is the vig (or juice, or hold): the book's built-in margin for hosting the bet.

At -110 you must win 52.4% of your bets just to break even. Winning 51% of your coin flips still loses money.

Standard game lines run ~4-5% vig. Player props often carry more (less competition, more book risk), and exotic parlays carry the most. Two practical consequences:

• The higher the vig, the bigger your edge has to be before a bet is worth making
• Removing the vig ("no-vig price") shows the book's true opinion — useful when comparing books

You can't avoid vig, but you can minimize it: shop for the best price on every bet (a -105 instead of -115 on the same prop is a permanent, guaranteed saving), avoid stacking high-vig markets out of habit, and treat parlays as entertainment priced accordingly. Our Market Pulse best-price board shows exactly which book is cheapest on tonight's props.