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You should try to explore every possible avenue for maximizing the potential returns on your sports
wagers. This is a good idea even if sports betting is just something you do for a bit of fun. It’s especially
important if you’re serious about making consistent and long term profits.
There are some obvious ways to maximize your returns when betting on sports. These include learning
as much strategy as possible, and working on improving your fundamental betting skills. There are other
options too, some of which a lot of bettors don’t even know about.
One such option is betting with reduced juice. This is something that every serious bettor should be
aware of, but there’s a surprising amount of confusion and misconception regarding the term reduced
juice. We say surprising because the basic concept is very simple. And yet there are plenty of people
who don’t really understand it all. There also those who think it’s only for high rollers, which is simply not true.
The term “Juice” is actually a slang term for Vigorish or “Vig”. In sports gambling is the amount of money or commission a sports book receives for taking your bet. Most of the time, the sports books takes a 10% cut for the amount of each wager, but the juice amount can vary from book to book and from sport to sport. For instance, most online sports book use 20% vig or juice for Baseball commission.
The purpose of this article is to explain exactly what reduced juice betting is. We also look at its pros and cons, and
compare it to using the bonuses and free bets that are available from any betting sites. For those of you who already understand
the concept, we start the article by covering where to bet if you’re looking for reduced juice. Or, for a general overview, you can
view the video we have put together below:
You have two options when looking to bet online with reduced juice. These are as follows.
An account with a specialist reduced juice site is almost essential if you’re anything more than the most casual of sports bettors. It’s unlikely you’ll want
to do ALL of your wagering with such a site though. In any case, there are not many high quality examples of specialist reduced juice sites.
So it’s also worth having an account with one or more of the other sites that offer SOME reduced juice lines. You’ll understand the reasons why we
recommend this approach once you’ve read the whole of this article. For now, here are top recommendations for reduced juice betting sites.
Rank | Gambling Site | Deposit Bonus | Get Started | |
#1 | Betway Sports | Up To €150 | Visit Site | |
#2 | 100% Up To €122 | Visit Site | ||
#3 | Spin Sports | 100% Up To €200 | Visit Site | |
#4 | 100% Up To €50 | Visit Site | ||
#5 | Guts Sports | 100% Up To €50 | Visit Site |
Let’s start with the word juice. You’re probably familiar with the term vig, or vigorish, if you’ve been betting for any length of time. This is a term used to
describe the commission that’s effectively charged by bookmakers on each and every bet that they take. Juice is simply an alternative word used to
describe the same thing.
If you’ve never heard of vig or juice at all, or really don’t understand the terms, then you should read our
article on how bookmakers make money before proceeding.
If you know what juice/vig is, then you should also know that minimizing how much of it you pay should is a good thing. It should directly help you to win
more money. Or, at the very least, it should help you to lose less.
In basic terms, this is what reduced juice betting is all about. It’s simply a way to pay less juice.
Let’s use an example to illustrate this further. We’ll use football, as it’s the most popular sport to bet on in the US. As you probably already know, a
significant percentage of football betting is done on the point spreads. The “standard” odds for a point spread are -110. So for a match between the
Dallas Cowboys and the Washington Redskins, you might see a sports betting site offer the following line.
Can you spot the difference?
The odds are better at this site. At -105, you only have to stake $105 for the chance of winning $100. This might not seem like a big difference, but over
a large number of bets it can have a significant impact on your overall profit or loss.
Based on this fact, it should seem fairly obvious that reduced juice betting is a good thing. Don’t rush to join a reduced juice betting site just yet though.
You should first understand that things are not quite as clear cut as they seem.
The above example highlights the main advantage of reduced juice betting. You have to risk less money to win the same amount. To put it another way,
you get a better return relative to your stake on all winning bets. We started this article by explaining the importance of maximizing your returns, and
betting with reduced juice clearly helps to achieve this.
There’s another big advantage of using reduced juice betting sites too. You’ll typically be able to bet more. A traditional betting site might limit you to
staking $1-2,000 on each wager.But the limits at a reduced juice betting site might be $5,000, $10,000 or possibly even higher. This is a real benefit if
you’re a winning bettor and want to stake higher amounts.
Reduced juice betting sites are not without their disadvantages though.
These sites are obviously making lower margins on each wager they accept, due to the lower commission. This has to be offset somehow. Generally
speaking, it’s via some or all of the following.
Some bettors are prepared to accept these disadvantages in exchange for paying less juice. And it may be that you are too. It’s important to be aware of
them though, and they should certainly influence your decision about where to bet.
One of the disadvantages of using a reduced juice betting site that we mentioned above is the lack of bonuses. This is perceived by many to be the biggest
disadvantage of all, in fact.
But is that much of an issue to miss out on some bonuses when you’re paying less big?
Let’s find out.
We’ll now compare the net results of wagering with reduced juice with the net results of wagering with a bonus.
Please NoteMany sports betting bonuses are issued as free play credits, not as cash. When you wager with free play
credits, only your winnings are returned and not your stake. For example, when using cash, a successful
$110 wager at odds of -110 would return a total of $210. This is the $100 in winnings plus the original $110
stake. When using a bonus, you’d be using $110 of your free play credits. The return is just the $100 in
winnings.
For the purposes of this hypothetical comparison, we’re going to assume we’ve just been issued a bonus of $400 worth free play credits. We’ve then
decided to make ten equal wagers of $40 using those credits. Each wager is at -110 odds.
Let’s say we managed a 60% win rate with those wagers. So we’ve won six, and lost four. Each winning wagers has returned $36.37. Our total return is
therefore $218.22 (6 x $36.37).
So far so good. We’re $218.22 up. But free play bonuses tend to come with rollover requirements. These require us to wager a certain amount before
we’re allowed to withdraw any proceeds of our free play credits.
Typical rollover requirements are six times the amount of the bonus. This would leave us with a total of $2,400 to wager before we’ve “cleared” the
bonus (6 x $400). We decide to increase our stakes to $60 per wager, in order to meet these requirements more quickly.
To wager the full $2,400, we’d need to make 40 wagers at $60 stakes (40 x $60 = $2,400). Let’s say we make these wagers all at odds of -110 again, and
we achieve a 55% win rate. As we’re betting with cash rather than free play credits, the total return on a $60 wager at -110 will be $114.55.
If we add the profit here to the money made from our free play credits, we’ve got a total profit of $338.32. We’ve met the rollover requirements, so that is
now “our” money.
Now let’s see what would have happened if we’d have made the exact same sequence of bets using a reduced juice betting site. We’ve got no bonus, but
the odds are all at -105.
First we do the ten wagers at $40 each, winning six of them.
Our profit at this stage is less than the $218.22 we made when using free play credits in the earlier example. But what happens when we do the next set
of wagers?
The profit of $177.30 here is greater than the $120.10 profit we made from the same wagers in the earlier example. But our total profit across all wagers
using a reduced juice site is $245.90. Compared to the total of $338.32 we made when using free play credits and then meeting the rollover requirements.
So what does this tell us?
The obvious answer is that playing with a bonus is better than using a reduced juice betting site. But it’s actually not that simple. This is just one
hypothetical example. A different set of wagers, with a different set of results, could easily make a similar comparison favor reduced juice betting.
And we’re actually not trying to convince you either way. You don’t need to choose reduced juice betting over betting with a bonus, or vice versa. There’s
nothing wrong with doing both. As with betting in general, it’s all about trying to do the right thing in the right situation. There are no definitive rules
regarding the best overall approach.
The purpose of this article was to provide some insight into what reduced juice betting is, and how it
compares to betting using bonuses. This is useful information for any bettor.
We also wanted to make the point that reduced juice betting has both advantages and disadvantages.
We do recommend betting with reduced juice in the right circumstances, but we don’t advise using
a reduced juice site for ALL of your betting. You should also make the most of the bonuses and other
benefits that traditional betting sites offer.
Remember that there’s one big advantage in using a range of online betting sites. It makes it easier to
compare odds and shop for the best lines. In the long run, this can make a much bigger different
to your overall profit than reduced juice betting or bonuses.
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“Vig” (also known as vigorish or ‘juice’) refers to the fee a bookmaker or sportsbook charges a bettor for placing their wager. The vig allows the bookmaker or sportsbook to make money on every betting line, regardless of the actual outcome of the event. Bettors win and lose, but the right vig guarantees the bookies always win.
Sportsbooks collect the vig by adding it into the odds as overround, or setting probabilities such that the total implied probability of all potential outcomes exceeds 100%. Because it’s baked into the odds as overround, the vig will shift the numbers, so you need to remove it to gain an accurate picture of what bookmakers actually expect to happen in a game.
Check out our comprehensive guide if you want more detail on how and why your favorite sportsbooks take their cut.
Before you can remove the vig from the line, you need to be confident effectively reading sports odds.
You’ve probably have seen a spread similar to this:
The -110 indicates that for the bettor must wager $110 for every $100 they want to win.
The $10 withheld from the bettor is the vig, which the bookmaker or sportsbook keeps as their profit.
If you need a hand converting odds, check out our guide on how to read and calculate sports betting odds.
Sportsbooks are in the business of dealing risk, but they like to play things safe themselves. Their goal with any betting line is to ensure the money comes in on each side in optimal proportions, such that they can cover their payout obligations while still pocketing some for themselves. This is one reason the odds will change in the lead up to an event: to attract more action on one side of the line, or to include a higher ‘vig’ percentage to guarantee profit.
Because the odds consider profitability rather than likely outcomes alone, you need to remove the vig from the betting line to gain an accurate picture of the actual probabilities oddsmakers assign to each potential outcome. We refer to this as ‘actual probability’ to differentiate it from ‘implied probability,’ which includes juice in the form of overround.
Finding this actual probability will help you handicap your wagers by getting a clearer view of the oddsmaker’s expectations. This exercise allows you to compare how much the sportsbook has inflated the price on a betting line, or to compare the handling fees baked into the odds at two different sportsbooks.
That said, it’s key to remember that you are ultimately wagering on the odds as they’re offered. When analyzing the potential value of any given bet, you should compare your estimated probability with the implied probability suggested by the odds with the vig included.
There are a number of calculations that need to be completed to remove the vig and look at the actual probabilities oddsmakers have assigned to each outcome of an event. Follow the following steps for a ‘clean line’ that isn’t influenced by the money coming in on each side:
The formula to find implied probability is risk/return = implied probability.
As an example, let’s find the implied probability of the following NHL moneyline:
In this scenario, you’ll need to bet $300 to win $100 (with a total return of $400).
Using the above formula of risk/return: 300(risk)/400(return)=0.75. The 0.75 number, or 75%, is the implied probability of the Capitals winning.
For the Vegas Golden Knights you would calculate: 100(risk)/325(return)= 0.30. 30% is the implied probability of the Golden Knights winning.
Now, you’ve got to determine the total implied probability, also known as the overround. To do so, you add each team’s implied probability, which would be .75 + .30 = 1.05, or 105%.
As you can see, the sum of total implied probabilities is more than 100. By effectively taking wagers on a range of outcomes that’s greater than the actual possible outcomes, overround is a simple way for bookmakers to guarantee they take in more money than they pay out. In the example above, the bookmaker would expect to pay out $100 after receiving $105 worth of wagers.
The vig is technically defined as the associated percentage amount the sportsbook will profit on the line. Overround can be used to calculate this percentage using the following formula:
Vig = 1 – (1/Overround) x 100
Vig = 1 – (1/105) x 100
Vig = .0476
Vig = 4.76%
It’s worth noting that you don’t need to calculate the vig as a percentage to find actual probability, or the implied probability of each outcome before books add the vig.
You must remove the overround to find actual probability by dividing each team’s implied probability by the total implied probability (or overround).
Actual probability = team implied probability/total implied probability
So 75.00/105.00 = .71 or 71%. The actual probability of the Capitals winning is 71%.
30.00/105.00= .29 or 29%. The actual probability of the Golden Knights winning is 29%.
To confirm you have done your calculations correctly add up both of your actual probabilities. The total should be 100 or 1, as a percentage or decimal, respectively:
.71 + .29 = 1.00. or 100%.
By removing the overround, we can see the actual probabilities of each outcome as estimated by the bookmakers before they account for the vig.
Removing the vig provides a behind the scenes viewpoint for sports bettors. If you don’t remove the vig or juice, you won’t know what the sportsbook actually thinks is going to happen in the game.
Calculating the vig on a betting line also helps you identify those bets that are simply overpriced.
For more great articles on sport betting tactics and tips, check out our guide to the sharpest strategies in the business.