What Is The Vig In Sports Betting & Where To Find a Low Vig Sportsbook

Updated: June 1, 2023

If you plan on taking your gambling seriously, then you need to take a deep dive into how betting odds are calculated.

Not only will this give you an idea as to why some sportsbooks have different betting odds from others, but it will also give you more of an idea as to how sportsbooks make a profit.

 On this page, we are going to look at one of the more important, but also one of the most overlooked, betting odds concepts. 

This is the Vig.

Whatever you want to call it, this is the way that online sportsbooks make a profit, and it is in your best interests to ensure that the Vig is as low as possible.

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What Is The Vig in Sports Betting?

We aren't going to go into too much depth on what the Vig is here.

This is because we have bigger priorities.

Low Vig Sportsbooks

Our goal is to tell you why you want that Vig to be as low as possible, but also where you can find some top low vig sportsbooks to gamble at.

Put simply, the vig is the cash that a sportsbook makes on a transaction.

Contrary to popular belief, not every dollar that is placed on a betting market is distributed among the winners. Instead, a small chunk of cash is taken away.

This is generally between 5-20%. This is the sportsbook's profit.

When you are looking at betting odds at a sportsbook, if you were able to work out their implied probability for each side of the bet and added them together, the figure would be higher than 100%.

Anything above 100% is the vig and goes right in the sportsbook's pockets.

For example, if the favorite had an implied 65% chance of winning and the underdog had a 40% implied chance, then this added up to 105%.

From this, you would know that the sportsbook has a vig of 5%. For every $100 gambled, they received $5, and $95 is distributed among the winners.

Things can get a little bit more confusing than this. Sportsbooks are forever attempting a balancing act with their betting odds.

They need to ensure that both sides attract a roughly equal number of bets.

This is the only way that they can make a profit.

This is also why you will often see betting odds change quickly, particularly in the lead-up to an event. The sportsbook is trying to attract a few final bets.

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Why Do You Need a Low Vig in Sports Betting?

So, now you know what a vig is, why do you need a low vig?

Well, a low vig ensures that there is less risk on the bet. A low vig means that you are effectively gambling less cash on a bet.

It won't seem like this, because the sportsbook will never tell you what the vig is, but we can assure you that you are.

Basically, a low vig is going to lead to much more competitive betting odds.

With a low vig, you have to put less cash on the line to win.

Of course, if you lose (which is going to happen to every gambler eventually), you will be losing less cash too.

To put this into perspective for you, let's say that the normal odds for a team sit at the -100 mark.

This means that you gamble $100 for the potential to win $100 (plus your initial stake back).

Now, let's say that the sportsbook has a vig of 5%. This would bump those odds to -105.

This means that you now need to put $105 on the line to potentially win $100.

The bet becomes riskier.

Don't worry if you are struggling to understand the concept.

Even the most experienced gamblers struggle at times.

However, we can assure you that once you start diving into implied odds, etc. then it becomes easier and easier to see which sportsbooks and offshore betting sites should be avoided due to their high vig.

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Where Can I Find a Low Vig Sportsbook?

There are a lot of sportsbooks out there.

The problem?

Most of them want to make huge amounts of profit.

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Go To Reduced Juice Sportsbooks

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This especially includes the huge sportsbooks which often have whopping marketing budgets that need to be covered.

As a result, if you are looking for a low-vig sportsbook, then you will need to look at a smaller site.

These will be the ones with fewer overheads.

In our experience, any of these sites will have a low vig (under 5%), which means that you can ensure that your gambling cash stretches a bit further:

• Bovada Sports Review
• Xbet Review
• BetOnline Sportsbook Review
• Sportsbetting Review
• BetUS Review
• MyBookie Sportsbook Review

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Conclusion

Want to make the most cash from your sports betting?

Want the least amount of risk?

Learn how vig in sports betting works.

If you can wrap your head around the concept (we promise, it isn't too hard!), it won't be long before you discover that some sportsbooks make huge amounts of profit on their bets (worse odds), while others opt for lower profits, but better odds.

Always opt for the latter. The list of low vig sites we included on this page is a great place to start.

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