Sorry if this is a dumb question that everyone but me knows the answer to, but what is the casino advantage when you bet on an NFL football game?
Not dumb at all. In fact, with football season in full swing currently, we're sure plenty of people, even those who bet on the games, don't know the answer.
Known as "juice," the standard is -110, meaning you lay an extra 10 cents for every dollar you hope to win, e.g., bet $110 to win $100. However, the juice could be -105 if the sports book is offering a special, so you're paying just an extra nickel, or -120, where you'll pony up an extra 20¢. It can go higher, but is usually within this range.
Assuming the standard -110, where you bet $11 to win $10, the casino edge is 4.5%.
Put another way, to make up for the 4.5% edge, you'll need to win 52.4% of your bets to profit in the long term, not an easy feat.
That said, -110 on a sports bet is an outstanding gambling value. After all, 4.5% of $11 is just 50¢. Since it takes about three hours to get a result from an NFL game, your mathematical "entertainment" cost works out to about 17¢ per hour.
Yes, there’s a 50% chance that you’ll lose the entire $11, but it’s also 50% that you’ll walk with $10 in winnings. Either way, really, the excitement factor of having a bet on a game you're watching is well worth 17¢ per hour.
Note that we're addressing only straight bets, mostly on sides and totals. Parlays, in-game parlays, teasers, futures, props, and other wagers have different edges that are almost always greater than the straight bets referenced here.
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Hoppy
Nov-03-2023
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