What the vig is
The vig — also juice, margin, or overround — is what the bookmaker charges for holding the bet. It is never billed separately and never appears on a receipt. It is inside the price, on both sides at once.
Why it matters more than it looks
It applies to every bet, every time, whether the bet wins or loses. Splitting your bets evenly at −110 does not leave you where you started, and the charge is the whole reason. Nothing else about betting is as easy to overlook or as consistent.
It is not the same everywhere
Same game, same side, two bookmakers, two prices — and the difference between them is yours to notice or to miss. Margins also vary by market: the main markets on a big game usually carry less than the exotic ones, and a parlay compounds the charge across every leg. That is a reason to look at the number in front of you rather than assume the market is priced the same everywhere.
Why every pick carries a minimum price
Because the price is the part of a bet you can lose without anything at all happening in the game. A side is only worth taking down to a point, and past that point we would not take it ourselves. That floor is published with the pick, and if your book is below it, skip the bet — the day counts the same for your package either way.
Work it out. The no-vig calculator takes both sides of a market and returns the margin and the fair price of each.
The archive
What the published price did in US sports
11,262 games in US sports that are over and carried a price when we wrote them up, between November 24, 2025 and November 6, 2026. Each count sits beside what it is out of, and the share is the one divided by the other.
| What | How often | Out of | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| The shorter price won | 7,058 | 10,936 | 64.5% |
| The favourite covered the handicap | 3,373 | 7,003 | 48.2% |
| The total went over | 5,518 | 11,236 | 49.1% |
| The home side won | 6,361 | 11,262 | 56.5% |
How they ended
Over 16,021 finished games in US sports whose result line says how it ended — the feed's own one-line verdict, not a reading of the play.
| What | How often | Out of | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Went past regulation | 1,212 | 16,021 | 7.6% |
| Settled on a shootout | 161 | 16,021 | 1.0% |
| Called before the end | 9 | 16,021 | 0.1% |
286 games landed exactly on the number — the handicap or the total — so they are in the counts they are out of and in neither result.
The prices counted here are DraftKings', as they stood when we last wrote each game up — one snapshot per game, near kick-off for almost all of them, and never a closing line. So this says what the published line did, not how it moved on the way there.
A season that happened. Nothing here predicts the next game, and none of it is advice.
Counted November 6, 2026.
Today's free pick, for your email
Team, bet, price and the hash it was sealed under, on this page the moment you send. Lose or win, it stays public.
or by email
Public record of the main pick, losses included: 115 won, 44 lost. See every pick
One free pick a day by email until you unsubscribe, in one click. 21+.