CALCULATOR VIG

Vig Calculator

Vig is the fee a book prices into both sides of a two-way market — this reads how much of the posted number is fee, and what the same two sides are worth without it.

SHARP READ

These two prices add up to 104.76%, so 4.76% of this market is fee. Take it out and the same two sides read +100 / +100. The distance between those and what is posted is what you are charged for the bet, whichever side lands.

4.76 — VIG ON THIS MARKET
SUCKER READ

You only pay the juice when you lose. Win the bet and it costs you nothing.

The two-way market

The market as quoted

Decimal odds, bet #11.909
Decimal odds, bet #21.909
Implied probability, bet #1 52.38%
Implied probability, bet #2 52.38%
Both sides together 104.76%

The two sides of a two-way market cover every outcome between them, so their honest probabilities have to add to one hundred percent. Whatever the quoted pair adds up to above that is not the market's opinion — it is the charge for taking the bet here.

The fee inside it

Vig on this market 4.76%

This is priced into the payout on both sides at once, which is why it comes out of winning bets as well as losing ones. A winner at a juiced price is simply paid less than the result was worth.

The same market without it

Fair probability, bet #1 50.00%
Fair probability, bet #2 50.00%
Fair odds, bet #1+100
Fair odds, bet #2+100

These are the prices this market would carry with the fee removed. They are the benchmark: a number you find elsewhere that beats them is worth something, and one that does not is just a different way of paying the same charge.

WHAT THE NUMBER DOESN'T KNOW

The fee is taken out here in proportion to each side's price, which assumes the book loaded both sides honestly. Books often do not — they shade more of the margin onto the side the public wants, so the fair price on one side can sit further from the posted number than this split suggests. And the reading only covers the pair you typed: if the two prices came from different books, what you are measuring is a disagreement between them, not a fee either one is charging.

Sharp Booksthe price the market trusts · 6:00 Hold Calculator the same margin, read from the book's side Put the math on your sidePRICING