Juice in sports betting refers to the bookmaker’s commission on a bet. Understanding how juice impacts your wagers is key to making smarter bets and maximizing profits. With W88au learn how to spot and reduce juice for better betting outcomes.
Why is Juice important in sports betting?
Juice in sports betting is also known as vig, which is the portion that the bookmaker holds back to receive your bet. If you make a friendly bet of $100 with your friend, the winner gets $100. If you bet against the bookie’s point spread, you would have to risk $110 to win $100. That means the sportsbook will get a $10 payout regardless of which side you bet on. Vig or vigorish that increases rapidly over time. Juice is the main way the bookies will take a cut from the betting action.
If you’re new to sports betting, learning about juice is important to understand your payout and how much you need to bet. Take a bet with odds of -110. A bettor would need to bet $110 to win $100. The juice on that bet would be 10% because that’s the cut to the ledger.
If the odds were to go up to -120, the juice would be 20%. The juice would cut into your profits over the long run. If you bet only at odds of -110, you would need to win 52.4 percent of those bets to break even.
How are sports bets counted?
There are online betting tools that can help you calculate your betting profitability, but here’s the technical information if you’re interested in how to calculate your betting profitability. At the end of the day, betting odds are just the probability of either outcome occurring. An easy to understand example is tossing a coin. The probability of being tails is 50%. Add them up and you will get 100%. Now with sports betting, juice makes that number 100% higher.
First, let’s convert odds to implied probability. It’s a fancy way of referring to the general likelihood of a betting outcome relative to the odds. You can use the following formulas to find the implied probability of a sports bet, this formula will also tell you the outcome.
- If the odds are negative, use this formula (remember to remove the negative sign): Negative Odds / (Negative Odds + 100) * 100.
- If the odds are positive, use this formula: 100/(Positive Odds + 100) * 100.
Let’s use example -110. Let’s say you choose the Chiefs to handicap -6.5 compared to the Panthers. If you put the odds of -110 into the formula: 110 / (110 + 100) * 100
Enter this number into the calculator and you’ll get a percentage of 52.4. This means that the odds for the Panthers are also 52.4% as they have the same odds of -110. Add those numbers together and you get 104.8 percent. That additional 4.8 is a bonus or commission to the bookie.
When do bookies adjust the odds?
W88 Sportsbook may adjust the stakes in certain situations. For example let’s consider the odds below:
- Bengals -7,5 (-110)
- Brown +7,5 (-110)
A sportsbook is getting a large number of bets on the Bengals -7.5. They don’t want to shift the odds to -8 and see too much risk on one side. Bookmakers can adjust the Bengals odds -110 to -115 or even -120. This change could equalize bets and get more bets on the Browns for insurance.
Conclusion
Juice in sports betting, also called vigorish or the bookie’s cut, plays a crucial role in your profits. By mastering the concept of juice in sports betting, you can make informed choices, minimize costs, and enhance your overall betting strategy for long-term success.
Related: What is a Unit in betting? Explain how to calculate for newbies
