What is juice (vig) in sports betting?
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Juice (also called vig, vigorish, or the cut) is the commission a bookmaker charges on a bet. It’s the built-in margin that ensures the bookmaker profits over time regardless of the outcome. In sports betting, juice is embedded in the odds you receive.
How juice works
A fair coin flip at true odds would offer 2.0 on both heads and tails. A bookmaker offering this market might price it at 1.91 on each side. A £10 bet on heads at 1.91 returns £19.10 (£9.10 profit) if it wins. If equal money is bet on both sides, the bookmaker takes in £20 and pays out £19.10 — keeping £0.90 regardless of outcome. That margin is the juice.
Juice in casino games
Casino table games don’t literally charge ‘juice’ but the house edge serves the same function — it’s the built-in margin that makes the casino’s expected return positive over time. In some games like baccarat, a 5% commission on winning Banker bets is explicitly labeled — this is functionally the same concept as juice in sports betting. The key number to check is always the house edge or the commission, as these tell you the true cost of each bet.
Ben Barber got into the gambling industry through the poker rooms of London in the early 2000s. After building up a solid grounding in casino, sports betting and poker, he made the move to Malta where he spent close to a decade writing for some of the biggest affiliate networks in the region. A few years ago he relocated to Bali, which shifted his focus toward website strategy and affiliate marketing. The casino side never really left, though. He still writes reviews, how-to guides and in-depth pieces on everything from slots and live dealer tables to crypto casinos and sweepstakes sites. His approach is fact-first: help players understand how online gambling actually works before they deposit a cent.