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What does juice mean in sports betting? Juice betting explained

Luke Lindholm May 31, 2023

Juice meaning

Juice in betting is the cut or amount a sportsbook charges for taking a bet on any sporting event. In other words, the sportsbooks effectively receive money upfront or a commission by accepting your bet.

What Does Juice Mean In Betting?

In sports betting, the juice is the percentage of a wager the sportsbooks will take on a successful bet. For books, the point of juice is to guarantee a profit if there is an equal handle (total money) on each side or outcome of a game or match. Regardless of the sport or particular event, there will always be some juice in any head-to-head matchup. Some sportsbooks take more juice than others, which can be a difference-maker long-term when it comes to how much you are profiting with your sports betting. Juice can (and perhaps should) determine at which book you choose to do your betting).

The simplest and most common form of juice is odds of -110 (American) or 1.91 (decimal) in an event between two sides/teams that are deemed to be evenly matched. Juice of -110 means the bettor must wager $11 to profit $10 on a successful play. By placing juice on each side instead of making each side even money (+100), the books ensure that they come out on top of the money/handle on each side receiving the same handle.

Examples of juice

Juice can be found basically everywhere in sports betting, which is bad news for the bettor and good news for the sportsbooks. After all, it’s how the ‘books ensure that they are favored to come out on top in the exchange of money more often than not. Juice isn’t always plainly obvious, and it comes in many different forms. Juice against the spread market is generally -110 or -115 on each side. There is also juice on the money line market and the futures market, even though it may be less obvious to notice with many teams/individuals being offered plus money. See below for some in-depth examples of juice in sports betting.

Is there juice against the spread?

Unfortunately for bettors, there is juice in every betting market. Against the spread bets are no exception. In most cases, when betting on a point spread the two sides will have the exact same probability of covering and the same amount of juice. When it comes to football games, the juice on each side is generally -110. As mentioned above, that means you must wager $110 to profit $100 on a successful play (or $11 to win $10).

In Super Bowl LV, for example, the Kansas City Chiefs were -3 favorites over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and the juice at most sportsbooks was -110. If a fair amount of money came in on Tampa Bay, the books would have the option of either moving the line or changing the juice. If they did not want to move the line to Chiefs -2.5, they could change the juice on the Chiefs to something like -105 and offer a less favorable payout on the Bucs at something like -120. That would discourage more betting Tampa Bay even without moving the line.

Is there juice on the money line?

Yes, there is also juice in money line betting. Despite most matchups featuring an underdog at plus money, there is still juice even in those situations. One team/individual could be minus money, and the other side could be plus, but the favorite will always deviate more from even money than the underdog. The gap between the two money lines is the juice. Most sportsbooks offer 20-cent lines. This indicates that the differences in the odds to $1 between the two sides are 20 cents. For example, if the San Francisco Giants are -140 underdogs, then the Philadelphia Phillies would be +120 underdogs. As the odds become more skewed, the cent lines will increase. For example, if the Phillies were +180 underdogs, the Phillies might be -220 favorites. That would constitute a 40-cent line.

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The juice is effectively the difference in the sum of the implied probability of each team winning and 100. In the first Giants (-140) vs Phillies (+120) example, the Giants’ implied probability of winning is 58.3 percent (see below for how this is calculated). The Phillies’ implied probability is 45.5 percent. Those two numbers add up to 103.8 percent. In other words, the sportsbooks are taking 3.8 percent of every dollar wagered on this particular money line market.

Is there juice on futures wagers?

Juice may be more subtle when it comes to betting on Futures, but there is more juice on this market than on any other. Many Futures markets do not have a single team at minus money; in other words, none is favored against the entire rest of the field. But every team at plus money by no means suggests that there is no juice involved.

This has to do with the sum of the implied probability of each future bet in a market. Let’s take a look at the 2021 NFC West as an example. Heading into the regular season, the San Francisco 49ers were +190 to win the division, the Los Angeles Rams are +200, the Seattle Seahawks are +280, and the Arizona Cardinals are +600. We will discuss implied probability calculations below, but these odds suggest that the 49ers have a 34.5 percent chance to win it, the Rams have a 33.3 percent chance, the Seahawks have a 26.3 percent chance, and the Cardinals have a 14.3 percent chance. Do those probabilities add up to exactly 100? No, they add up to 108.4 percent. That means the ‘books are effectively taking 8.4 percent of every dollar wagered on the NFC West. When you throw 32 teams into the mix in the Super Bowl market, the ‘books will be taking an even greater percentage.

How is sports betting juice calculated?

Odds in any market are driven by implied probability. Bookmakers use win probability to set their odds, and bettors can look at the odds to calculate win probability. The two formulas–one for minus money and one for plus money–are below.

  • Negative Odds / (Negative Odds + 100) * 100
  • 100 / (Positive Odds + 100) * 100

The Buffalo Bills are -150 to win the AFC East. Using the negative odds formula, add 150 + 100 to get 250, divide 150 by 250 to get 0.6, and multiply 0.6 by 100 to get 60. Thus the Bills’ implied probability to win the division is 60 percent. In the NFC West example, the Rams were +200. Using the positive odds formula, we added 200 to 100 to get 300, divided 100 by 300 to get .333, and then multiplied .333 by 100 to get 33.3. Thus the Rams’ implied probability to win the division is 33.3 percent.

Using the negative odds formula with standard -110 ATS juice, you will see this amounts to 52.4 percent. Even though both sides have the same chance (if they are both -110), each team isn’t 50 percent. The book is taking 2.4 percent on every dollar that you bet in this case.

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What does vigorish mean? Is it the same as juice?

Vigorish is the same thing as juice. Whereas juice is a term exclusive to the sports betting world, vigorish has wider uses in areas such as finances, stocks, and sports betting. “Vig” for short, the term can refer to interest owed to a loan shark in exchange for credit. Interest, cut, take a margin, and percentage are similar terms. In this case, the vig is the fee charged by the bookmaker for accepting a bettor’s wager. And in this case, vigorish and juice mean the same thing.

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