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.

• How Does Juice Work In Sports Betting
• Juice In Sports Betting
• What Is The Juice In Sports Betting
• What Is Juice When Betting

“Vigorish”, “vig” or “juice” is the commission charged by sportsbooks for each bet. Reduced juice is a decrease in the amount of vigorish that is paid to the bookmakers on each bet. The juice is a term that describes the commission charged by the sportsbook on a bet. So naturally, we would want to drive that commission cost down, hence reduced juice. A bettor wants to profit a. Channels devoted to MLB, NBA, college sports, mixed martial arts and more; A place to discuss Matt Perrault’s latest episode of The Daily Juice Podcast; An opportunity to talk sports betting strategy with. If you don’t remove the vig or juice, you won’t know what the sportsbook actually thinks is going to happen in the game. Calculating the vig on a betting line also helps you identify those bets that are simply overpriced. For more great articles on sport betting. The term “Juice” is actually a slang term for Vigorish or “Vig”. In sports gambling is the amount of money or commission a sports book receives for taking your bet. Most of the time, the sports books takes a.

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?

How Does Juice Work In Sports Betting

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.

<< Back to Betting Glossary

When referring to juice in a sportsbook we aren’t talking about the cranberry juice mixed with your vodka. Rather, juice is all about how much the sportsbook charges a bettor to make a bet. As a bettor, you want to minimize your losses and one way to accomplish that is by reducing the juice. This same term is also known as reduced “vig” or vigorish. Even though you may have an understanding of vigorish, the term reducing the juice can still be confusing. Let’s get an understanding, break it down, discuss the pros and cons, and help choose which sportsbook to use.

Picking a Sportsbook with Reduced Juice

Choosing between multiple sportsbooks can be done on the surface, but also requires research. On the surface, you’ll either see bonuses or not. The same goes for daily or weekly promotions.

Research is pivotal in finding reduced juice. Each day there are hundreds of sports with thousands of games being played. Every sportsbook wants to set their lines first to attract bettors.
Given the number of games you can find with different lines between the sportsbooks, reduced juice and line shopping go together. Remember, EVEN if it’s $5 that is a HUGE price to pay. Keep the money in your pocket!

The Best Reduced Juice Sportsbooks:

The best system would be to have accounts across several sportsbooks. This will allow you to take advantage of attractive special bonuses and reduced juice odds. Sports betting is no different than other industries in that scenarios, strategies, and circumstances change so allowing yourself to be flexible can aide in your survival.

What Is Reduced Juice?

The juice is a term that describes the commission charged by the sportsbook on a bet. So naturally, we would want to drive that commission cost down, hence reduced juice. A bettor wants to profit a minimum of $100 for every $100 bet placed. A goal of the sportsbook is to have the bettor risk more than $100 to win $100. This is the juice. Bookmakers want to set the odds as high as possible while still enticing the bettor to place action. Therefore, anytime you can place a bet as close to +100 as possible you have reduced the juice.

How to Identify Reduced Juice

Using a typical NFL Sunday point spread, let’s look at how you find reduced juice.

In this illustration, at Sportsbook A, placing a bet on the Bills for a $100 profit will cost you $110. Whereas, at Sportsbook B, the same profit comes at only a $105 risk to you. By placing your bet at book B you have just saved yourself $5! Congratulations, now you’re betting like a seasoned veteran. In placing the bet at the -105 odds you have reduced the juice since the bookmaker is charging you $5 less. The same logic applies if you were to bet on the Patriots in the example above.

Juice In Sports Betting

The Pros of Reduced Juice

There are a few reasons why reducing the juice is a required tactic if you want to be a successful long-term bettor. In an industry where the events are essentially a coin flip due to the bookie’s astute point spreads and odds, you need to give yourself any and all advantages possible. Here’s how reducing the juice can benefit your bankroll:

• Minimizing your losses. ALL bettors lose, so if you can save yourself $5 or $10 on each bet this will help your bankroll out tremendously over the long haul.
• Sportsbooks will allow bigger bet sizes. Everyone has those moments when they are really confident in a bet and want to put a little extra behind it.
• Easier to profit. Since your losses are less, betting with reduced juice means you don’t have to be as successful to turn a profit. You can win less often and still be just as successful if not more than someone not betting with reduced juice. Now is a good time for me to remind you that at -110 odds you would need to win 52.3% of your bets to become profitable. Anytime you can get under -110 will go a long way in lowering this percentage.

The Cons of Reduced Juice

Everything in life comes with a downside and reduced juice is no different. Here are a couple of unpleasant experiences when betting with reduced juice:

• Sportsbooks offer fewer free offers & bonuses. Take, for example, a 50% deposit bonus up to $250. That means if you deposit $250, the sportsbook matches that by 50%, meaning you would have a starting bankroll of $375. This might sound enticing but if you’re betting at -115 per say the extra cost of the bet consumes this “free” money pretty fast.
• Sharper lines. The sportsbook offering -105 may actually have the point spread at +2.5 rather than +3 and they’re covering the difference.
• Poor customer service. Because the sportsbooks are making less of a profit, oftentimes they cut costs in other areas of their business. That being said, if the sportsbook is well managed then you will rarely need to interact with customer service so this isn’t a big concern to me. If you contact them just be aware of things like slow response time.

What are Reduced Juice Limits?

The sportsbooks offering reduced juice will increase the wager maximum amount. Since they are charging you less, they attempt to reclaim some winnings by allowing you to bet more. Hoping you place a large bet on a 50/50 event is a happy scenario for the bookie.

What Is The Juice In Sports Betting

Difference Between Reduced Juice and Bonuses

Think of the difference between reduced juice and bonuses in terms of how you want to acquire and spend your bankroll. A bettor using a sportsbook with a bonus system will initially have a larger bankroll. While having such a big bankroll can increase gives you confidence, watching the amount go down faster and faster with each bet will do anything but.

Remembering that the point spread essentially makes the event 50/50 will remind you that there are no guarantees in sports betting. I’d much rather have a smaller starting bankroll and act smarter, saving money on each bet. You’ll find the bonuses are a gimmick and keep you coming back.

Remember Less Juice the Better!

What Is Juice When Betting

The next time you hear about reducing the juice you won’t be questioning the strength of your cocktail. Choosing which sportsbook to use might require time initially, but in the long run, your bankroll is saved. There is data that shows a successful bettor wins 55% of their bets, so there are a lot of opportunities to limit your losses. Regardless of how frequent you bet reduced juice is always the smart bet.