Glossary

What does juice mean in sports betting?

Last updated 2026-07-04

Juice is slang for the bookmaker's commission, identical to vig: the margin built into prices so that implied probabilities sum past 100%. "Reduced juice" books offer mainlines at -105 instead of -110, roughly halving the tax on every wager.

Juice, vig, vigorish, margin, and hold all describe the same phenomenon at different angles; see vig for the mechanics and the break-even math. The word survives because it is the one bettors say out loud: laying the juice, juiced to -125, reduced juice.

Asymmetric juice is information. A line at -115 / -105 instead of -110 / -110 means the book is shading one side, either against expected public flow or in response to money it has already taken. Watching where the juice sits across books adds a second dimension to watching the number itself.

Reduced-juice pricing is the quiet giant of long-term ROI: paying -105 instead of -110 is worth more than most handicapping insights. Comparing each book's juice on the same market is a one-call query via /odds/, and the no-vig calculator turns any pair of prices into an exact hold number.

Compute it with the API

curl "https://api.theoddsapi.com/odds/?sport_key=basketball_nba&markets=h2h" \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY"

Same market, every book, one response: the juice comparison is the two prices around each number. Free key in minutes.

Related terms: Vig (Juice) · Hold · Line Shopping · No-Vig Fair Odds (De-vigging) · Full glossary