How sportsbooks make money
The house edge, written down plainly by a product that does not have one.
Updated July 22, 2026
Sportsbooks make money on the hold: the share of every dollar wagered that the book keeps. A standard -110 line carries a theoretical hold of about 4.5 percent, and published state revenue reports show real books keeping roughly 7 to 12 percent overall, with parlays higher still. A 50-dollar-a-week bettor hands the book a few hundred dollars a year, win or lose.
What is vig, and what is hold?
Vig is the price built into the odds; hold is the share of all money wagered that the book keeps. On a standard -110 line you risk 110 dollars to win 100. If a book takes balanced money on both sides, it collects 220, pays back 210, and keeps 10: about 4.5 percent of everything wagered.
Take the standard line apart. At -110, winning 100 dollars requires risking 110. That price implies a 52.4 percent chance of winning. Offer it on both sides of the same game and the implied chances add to 104.8 percent. Reality only has 100 percent to hand out; the extra 4.8 points is the book's margin, sometimes called the overround.
Or follow the cash, which is easier. Balanced money on a -110 / -110 line means the book collects 220 dollars, pays the winner 210 (their 110 back plus 100 in winnings), and keeps 10. Ten kept out of 220 collected is about 4.5 percent of everything wagered, earned before anyone made a good or bad call.
Notice what the hold is not. It is not a punishment for picking badly, and winners do not escape it: a winner at -110 was paid less than fair odds for the risk they carried. The hold is the price of the window, charged to everyone who walks up.
Why do sportsbooks love parlays?
Because the edge compounds. Every leg of a parlay carries its own margin, and multiplying the legs multiplies the margin. A three-leg parlay of coin-flip bets typically pays 6 to 1 when fair odds would be 7 to 1. That gap is a hold of about 12.5 percent, nearly triple a straight bet.
The arithmetic is worth seeing once. Three coin-flip legs come in together one time in eight, so fair odds are 7 to 1. Pay 6 to 1 instead and, on average, a dollar bet eight times wins six dollars once and loses seven times: down one dollar in eight, a 12.5 percent hold. Build the same parlay from -110 legs instead of fair coins and the margin climbs further, because every leg carries its own vig and the legs multiply.
This is also where promotions point. Boosted odds, bet credits, and bonus bets are denominated in wagers, not cash: to touch the value, you have to run it back through the counter, and the offers cluster around the parlay-shaped products where the hold is widest. A promo is not the book sharing its edge. It is the book buying volume for its highest-margin shelf.
What do the published hold numbers say?
State regulators publish the totals monthly. Nevada, the most mature market, held about 7.1 percent of sports wagers in May 2026. New Jersey held about 11.4 percent in November 2025. Parlay-heavy months run higher still. The theoretical 4.5 percent is a floor, not the reality.
None of this is secret. Every regulated state publishes handle (the total wagered) and revenue (the amount kept) each month, and the ratio between them is the hold, sitting in public arithmetic. The Nevada Gaming Control Board's monthly revenue report shows Nevada books keeping about 38.7 million dollars of 545.9 million wagered in May 2026, a 7.1 percent hold in the country's oldest market. The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement's November 2025 report shows about 146 million dollars kept of 1.28 billion wagered, an 11.4 percent hold. The arithmetic predicts the rest: the more a slip leans on parlays, the higher the hold climbs, because that is where the widest margins sit.
Ledger's calculator on the landing page uses three flat estimates drawn from that published range and the parlay arithmetic above: 8 percent for straight bets, 14 percent for a mixed slip, and 20 percent for parlay-heavy play. They are estimates, the calculator labels the rate it applies, and now you know where they come from.
Sources: New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement monthly gross revenue reports; Nevada Gaming Control Board monthly revenue reports. Figures are the reports' published handle and revenue, rounded.
What does the hold cost a 50-dollar-a-week bettor?
Fifty dollars a week is 2,600 dollars a year through the window. At an 8 percent hold, the book keeps about 208 dollars of it; at 14 percent, about 364; at 20 percent, about 520. That is not a penalty for betting badly. It is the expected price of betting at all.
| Style of play | Hold estimate | Wagered in a year | The book keeps (about) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mostly straight bets | 8% | $2,600 | $208 |
| A mixed slip | 14% | $2,600 | $364 |
| Mostly parlays | 20% | $2,600 | $520 |
Estimates, using the same flat rates as the calculator on the Ledger landing page. Any single year can beat or trail these numbers; the hold is what remains when the luck averages out.
The quiet part is that the money goes whether the season felt lucky or cursed. Feelings track the wins. The hold tracks everything.
Where does Ledger fit?
Ledger publishes this arithmetic because it costs us nothing. There is no hold here.
There are no deposits to hold a percentage of. Float, the currency you play with, refills daily, cannot be bought, and converts to nothing. When a sportsbook explains the vig, it is describing its income. When Ledger explains it, it is describing the competition. You can read how the closed economy works in Float, Standing, and the Dividend.
If you want this arithmetic pointed at your own calls, that is the Shadow Line: what a real book would have kept from your graded losing calls, in dollars, at your own stakes. And if you are reading this page because betting has stopped being fun rather than out of curiosity, apps to replace sports betting is the honest version of that conversation. A game is not treatment: real help is at 1-800-GAMBLER and on play responsibly.