The Bookmakers’ Advantage

They are a talented bunch of people. They can handicap sporting events better than anyone else on the planet and are the best place to look when you want realistic odds on just about anything sports related.

Bookmakers’ abilities are rarely questioned anymore because people realize they are usually right on the money when it comes to making predictions. Of course, some of the worst sports bettors will claim that the bookies got this one wrong, explaining how “the wrong team was favored.”. If any oddsmaker was regularly that far off – their sportsbook would soon be out of business.

Even if an oddsmaker isn’t perfect, sports bettors sometimes forget about the advantage oddsmakers hold over every wager they make. Various colloquial terms around the world describe this as vigorish, juice, bookmakers’ fee, etc. Sportsbooks make an additional profit from each wager they take. This edge is called the “vig” or “vigorish.” It guarantees them a profit when they balance their action and gives them an advantage on each bet.

Achieving Success Despite Odds

However, beating the bookmaker’s price isn’t as simple as it seems. Sportsbooks today have systems in place to automatically move their lines based on betting activity. During critical hours, there is always someone at the controls since much of this is automated.

In most cases, the market follows fairly quickly when the odds change at one of the prominent sportsbooks. The sportsbooks are notorious for pulling markets off the board when breaking news or updates occur, and beating them is difficult.

Sharp action is more dangerous to a bookmaker than many think. They do this for a variety of reasons, which is why their betting limits vary by sport and market, and why most have night limits on overnight odds in the next day’s games.

The sportsbooks will always have an advantage over the vast majority of the betting public due to their ability to change the lines in a matter of seconds. Another feather in their cap is the fact that they can ban or limit players. A sportsbook cannot accept a player’s bets if they continue attacking its vulnerable markets.

Introducing Vigorish

Along with their high-tech betting software and staff of managers, the sportsbooks have a hurdle for bettors to jump every time they place a wager – the vigorish.

Although these standard 11/10 odds may not seem like much, the sportsbooks wouldn’t be able to operate without them. For sports bettors, the break-even percentage is 52.4 percent if all their wagers are charged the standard vig.

Winning 52.4 percent of your bets may seem simple, but that’s something most bettors can’t accomplish when they walk into a sportsbook in Las Vegas or deposit online.

That break-even percentage only applies if you are paying -110 on every bet. There are sportsbooks with reduced juice (-105) pricing, but most bettors don’t take advantage of these markets or adequately line up their bets. There are many markets that charge bettors more than standard 11/10 odds, resulting in higher juice or vig.