Sports Betting 101: What Does -110 (Juice or Vig) Mean When Betting Sports? The standard (and often implied) number is –110, meaning a successful bet of $110 would net $100 profit. This is the “juice” or “vigorish” (aka “vig”) for the house or sportsbook. 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.

What Does Juice Mean In Sports Betting?
by Doc's Sports - 10/9/2014

Juice is another name for vig, which is the cut or amount charged by a sportsbook for taking a bet. The sportsbook only collects the juice if the bettor loses the wager. For example, a point spread is often listed with -110 odds. If the Eagles are -6.5 point favorites, that would be at -110 odds. If there was no juice, it would be at even odds, or +100. With the juice, a $100 bet would result in a $190 payout. In-Play Betting: Another term for live betting, in-play betting is wagering that takes place while a game or event is running. Due to the fluid nature of the game or event, in-play betting lines adjust on the fly. Juice: Another term for the “vig” or “rake,” which is the money a sportsbook or sports betting.

The juice is the primary way that sportsbooks make money - the commission they take on bets. It is also commonly referred to as vigorish, or just vig.

We’ll use an example to see how the juice works. The standard price for a pointspread or total bet is -110. That means that you have to bet $110 to make a profit of $100 on both sides. Let’s say that $1,100 is bet on each team, and the underdog covers the spread. Bettors on the underdog will make a combined $1,000 in profit. Bettors on the favorite will lose their $1,100 in combined bets. The sportsbooks will use $1,000 of those $1,100 in losses to pay the winning bettors. Left over is $100. That’s the juice - the commission on the bets, and the profit for sportsbooks.

People assume that sportsbooks are trying to be smarter than bettors - out-handicapping them and winning more games to make their profit. That’s just not the case. It’s all about the juice for books - at least ideally. Just think about it - if the books can get approximately balanced amounts of action on both sides of a game then they can make a guaranteed profit no matter how the game turns out. That is far more attractive for them than having exposure to one side or the other and hoping for the best. Books, then, are in the business of getting balanced action - they are market makers. The reason that lines move is because either action is more tilted to one team than the other and the movement makes the underappreciated team more attractive, or because the books anticipate unbalanced action because of a development like an injury and they are moving to minimize the impact of the action. When linemakers set lines, then, they aren’t necessarily trying to figure out who is going to win the game and by how much. They are focused on how they think you and the rest of the bettors are going to perceive a game, and where they need to set the line to drive balanced action. The better you can understand that and all that it means, the stronger you will be as a bettor.

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Welcome to the Sports Betting Odds section of The Sports Geek. If you are new to sports betting and don’t understand how to read betting odds (+150, -110, +2200, etc) we will lay it all out for you and help you learn how the betting odds work.

Sports Betting Odds Explained

Many people don’t know how to read or calculate sports betting odds, so below we have done our best on explaining how betting odds work. The most common type of sports betting odds used in North America are the American style odds which we explain below.

American Style Sports Betting Odds

Most online sportsbooks will list their odds in what is called “American Odds”. There are a couple different versions of sports betting odds, but these American Odds are the most common odds used. Reading and understanding sports betting odds can bet a little confusing to beginners, so we have provided an example below using two NFL football teams:

American Odds

• Matchup Odds
• New England Patriots +120
• Pittsburgh Steelers -140

What Does Mean In Betting 110

The number shown in the bracket represents the odds. The American Odds have two components to them, the first being the positive or negative sign, and the second being the number that follows the sign.

The sign in front of the number indicates whether placing a wager on that outcome will pay out more money then you have wagered or less money then you have wagered. If the odd is negative (-) it means that outcome is more likely to happen and placing a bet on that outcome would payout less than the amount you wagered, while a positive (+) odd shows that the outcome is less likely to happen and it would pay out more than the amount you wagered.

The next step is figuring out exactly how much the bet pays out, which is where the numbers in the odds come into play.

A listed odd with a – sign in front of it, such as the -140 in our example above, shows us how much money you would need to wager in order to win $100. So using the -140, this would show us that you would need to bet $140 in order to win $100 in profits. You can easily substitute the $100 bet for a $10 bet by moving the decimal place over one spot, showing us that you would need to wager $14 in order to win $10 in profits.

Examples:

A listed odd with a + sign in front of it, such as the +120 in our example above, shows us how much money you would win on a $100 bet. Using the +120 odds, it shows us that a $100 bet on that outcome would pay out $120 in profits. Again this can easily be converted into smaller or larger size bets. A $10 bet on +120 odds would pay out $12 in profits.

Examples:

Below is an example of NFL betting odds taken from an online betting site.

In this example you can see Los Angeles is listed at +130 ($100 bet pays $130 plus of course your original wager back) and New England is listed at -150 ($150 bet pays $100).

The great thing about betting online is that the online sportsbooks will do the calculations for you before you place your bet. You can click on the outcome or team you would like to bet on, and then input the amount you wish to wager and it will show you your potential pay out before you confirm your bet.

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Decimal Style Sports Betting Odds

Decimal style odds are used mostly in Europe, and are pretty easy to understand. To calculate the decimal style odds all you will need to do is simply multiply the amount you wish to wager by the decimal odds shown and you will get your payout. For example it may look something like this:

What Does The Juice Mean In Betting

If you wanted to place a $10 wager on the USA at 2.40 you would simply need to multiply your $10 wager by the 2.40 odds (10 x 2.40) to find out that the payout is $24. It is important to realize that with decimal style odds it includes the amount you wagered, so to find out profits you would need to subtract your wager ($24 – $10) to find out your potential payout is $14 in profits.

If you wanted to place a $10 wager on Brazil you would again just multiply $10 x 1.55 to find out that you would win $15.50 total or $5.50 in profits.

V 8 Ingredients

Decimal style betting odds are very simple to understand, but you won’t see them displayed in many North American sportsbooks. With that said, most online betting sites will allow you to chose the style of betting odds you want displayed, with American odds set as the default.