// Tools · Vig & hold

Vig & Hold Calculator

Enter both sides of a market. Out comes the sportsbook's cut — the fee you pay on every bet, whether you win or lose.

Book hold on this market

What the hold actually is

Convert both sides of a market to implied probability and add them up. A fair market would total 100%. A real one totals more — usually 104-105% on a two-way line. That surplus is the hold, also called the vig or juice: the sportsbook's fee, priced into the odds rather than charged as a commission.

Why a point or two matters more than it sounds

At -110 on both sides the hold is 4.76%, and you need to win 52.4% of your bets to break even. Find the same game at -105 and the hold drops to 2.44% and break-even falls to 51.2%. That 1.2-point difference is larger than the edge most bettors ever manage to find through handicapping. Paying less is the most reliable edge available.

Where to go next

Once you know the hold, strip it out with the no-vig calculator to see the market's honest price, then check what win rate you actually need with the break-even calculator.

We run these numbers on every game on the board, every day — or see all ten calculators on one page.

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