The people who are in sports betting are familiar with the word “vig,” and juice is another name for vig. It is the charges or amount cut by a sportsbook for taking a bet. When better loses the sportsbook collects the juice. It may prevent the majority of bettors from becoming long-term winners.
What Does ‘Juice’ Mean?
Many sportsbooks offer attractive offers and promotions for a reason, which is, of course, juice. They make a profit from the juice when any better lose the bet. Vig is naturally inserted into the point spread in the sportsbook. For example, in most soccer games, each team has American odds value of -100. It means you should bet $110 to win $100 on any team you choose. So, in this, if you lose, the profit of sportsbook is 10 per cent regardless of the outcome.
But, the juice can vary from one to another sportsbook and also from one game to the next. However, the general practice is the same through which sportsbooks make a profit.
For example, if you bet $10 on a team or game with a friend, the winner gets $10. But when you place betting on a sportsbook, you need to pay the charge to the book.
How to Calculate the Juice or Vig in Sports Betting?
Do you really want to get into the detail of juice calculations? If yes, then read on. Set of odds in sports betting is simply a probability of outcomes that a sportsbook offer to you. In sports betting, this probability is greater than 100 per cent, because the sportsbook needs a cut on a bet.
It means you can calculate the juice by adding the applied probabilities on each side and, after this, subtract that from 100. Now, the question is how to convert the bet to implied probability? For this, you can use the odds converter or can calculate it manually with the following formula.
For anything with a minus sign use this: Negative Odds / (Negative Odds + 100) x 100
For anything with a plus sign, use this: 100 / (Positive Odds + 100) x 100
Let us say that the juice on Foot point spreads is -115 on football point spreads.
Using the first formula, you get: 115/ (115 + 100) x 100 = 53.48%
It means you need to win that bet 53.48% of the time to break in the long run. The sportsbooks have a 3.4% edge over your bet.
How to Remove the Juice or Vig?
There are various calculations to remove the juice charged by the sportsbook for each outcome of an event. Here are some tips to remove the vig.
Calculate the implied probability, including the juice of all outcomes. Now, use the total implied probability to check or find the juice as a percentage. So that you can remove it from the betting line. Find out the actual probability by removing the vig to bring total implied probabilities to 100%.
Understand the process with an example: Say the implied probability of Team A is 45.45%, and Team B is 58.33%. Now, you have to calculate the actual probability.
So, the actual probability = Implied Probability / (Team A IP + Team B IP)
Team A: 45.45% / (45.45% + 58.33%) = 44%
Team B: 58.33% / (58.33% + 45.45%) = 56%. This will take you to 100%