Hold Calculator
Enter both sides of a market to see the sportsbook's hold — how much of the market is juice.
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What Is a Sportsbook's Hold?
Hold (also called juice, vig or margin) is how sportsbooks make money: they price both sides of a market so the implied probabilities add up to more than 100%. The excess is the book's cut. The classic example is -110 on both sides of a spread — each side implies 52.4%, totalling 104.8%, so about 4.8 points of every market is juice.
How to Use the Hold Calculator
- Enter Side 1's odds — one side of the market in American odds.
- Enter Side 2's odds — the calculator returns the market's hold percentage instantly.
Use it to compare how expensive different books and markets are — or check the hold across two different books' best prices to see how much line shopping saves you. If the hold across two books ever comes out negative, that's an arbitrage: the arbitrage finder hunts those automatically. Compare prices on the odds screen and check any single bet's value with the EV calculator.
Hold Calculator FAQ
What is hold in sports betting?
Hold is the sportsbook’s built-in margin on a market — the cut it keeps regardless of the outcome. Add up the implied probabilities of every side of a market: whatever exceeds 100% is the hold. At -110/-110 the two sides imply 104.8%, so the book is holding roughly 4.8 points.
What is a typical hold percentage?
Mainline markets (spreads, totals, moneylines) usually run 4–5%. Player props, futures and same game parlays often carry substantially more — sometimes double digits — which is why prop bettors need a bigger edge to break even.
Why does hold matter?
Hold is the hurdle every bet has to clear before it can be profitable. A bettor paying 5% hold needs to win 52.4% of -110 bets just to break even. Betting into lower-hold markets — or shopping for the best line on each side — directly lowers that hurdle.
How do I pay less juice?
Line shop. Because each book prices markets independently, taking the best available price on each side often cuts the effective hold in half — and occasionally below zero, which is an arbitrage. Comparing prices across books before betting is the simplest edge in sports betting.