Reduced Juice at Online Sportsbooks

Just about every online sportsbooks offers a very generous welcome bonus for new customers. To gain your business, they will match your initial deposit to a certain percentage and return the funds to your account after certain rollover requirements havea been met. A rollover pertains to betting the amount of that initial deposit a specific number of times.

Most casual sports bettors will have a tough time meeting those requirements to obtain all or even part of the bonus amount. One sure-fired way to extend the betting value of your bankroll with the online books is any type of “reduced juice” incentive.

What is Reduced Juice

Juice or vig is the amount of commission you pay to book a bet. If you want to bet $100 on Sunday’s big NFL game, you actually have to risk $110 to place that bet. The extra $10 is the juice or commission owed. If you bet the game correctly, you get the $110 back plus the $100 in winnings. If you lost the bet, you lose the $110.

 
Just like the sports you bet on, there are winners and losers with the outcome of every single game. The unfortunate reality of sports betting is sometimes losing more than you win. Even if you have a .500 record with your bets, you will still lose money with the 10 percent commission owed on half the bets that were graded as losers. Winning $500 and losing $550 leaves you down $50.

Suppose you could find an online sportsbook that only charged a five percent commission? Your overall losses in juice owed would be cut in half. The savings over the course of an entire season for one sport would really start to add up.

Using Reduced Juice to Your Full Advantage

Depending on the sports you are betting, reduced juice can take on different forms. For sports such as football and basketball that rely heavily on the actual point spread when betting the games, the juice owed is rather plain and clear. A basic example is as follows:

New York Giants +7 (-110)

Dallas Cowboys -7 (-110)

In this scenario, the spread is seven points and the juice is the standard 10 percent. The following is one example of reduced juice:

New York Giants +7 (-105)

Dallas Cowboys -7 (-105)

In this case, the juice charged is only five percent. Most books do not give away five percent of their commission on a bet for fun. A more common way to offer a reduced juice option is to push the bettor one way over the other. This could look as follows:

New York Giants +6 ½ (-105)

Dallas Cowboys -6 ½ (-110)

In this scenario, you can get the reduced juice on New York at five percent, but it will cost you a half point on the spread.

Betting MLB games is all about using reduced juice to your full advantage. The primary baseball bet is on the money line for each game. It will cost you more to bet on the favorite and the potential return is higher betting on the underdog. Book A may have today’s New York Yankees’ game listed as follows:

Baltimore Orioles +140

New York Yankees -160

You would have to risk losing $160 to win $100 betting on the Yankees. The return on Baltimore as the underdog would be $140 for a winning $100 wager.

How Does Your Online Sportsbook Stack Up Against the Competition?

The more attractive money line bet for the favorite would be at Book B as follows:

Baltimore Orioles +140

New York Yankees -150

This is known as a dime line since the spread between the two is only 10 as opposed to 20. Some online bookies will offer nickel lines when betting a game in a specific time frame, such as the night before.