Free calculator
No-vig calculator
Enter the two prices on a two-way market to strip out the bookmaker margin. You get each side's fair probability, its fair odds, and the hold the book is charging.
Fair, no-vig market
For information only. Not betting advice.
How it works
A two-way market has two prices, and the implied probabilities from those prices add up to more than 100%. The extra is the bookmaker's margin, often called the vig or the hold. Removing it leaves the fair probabilities, which sum to 100%.
This calculator uses the multiplicative method. Take the implied probability of each side, then divide each by the total of the two. That scales them to add up to 1 while keeping their ratio. Convert the fair probabilities back to prices for the fair, no-vig odds.
The hold is the two implied probabilities added together, minus 100%. It is the share of every balanced dollar the book keeps on average.
Worked example
Take -120 on one side and +100 on the other. Their implied probabilities are 54.55% and 50.00%, which sum to 104.55%, so the hold is 4.55%. Dividing each by 104.55% gives fair probabilities of 52.17% and 47.83%, which convert to fair odds of -109 and +109.
Questions
- What is the hold?
- The hold, or vig, is the bookmaker's built-in margin. It is how much more than 100% the two sides of a market imply. On a -120 / +100 market the hold is 4.55%.
- What is the multiplicative method?
- It removes the margin by dividing each side's implied probability by the total of both, which keeps the ratio between the two sides. The additive method, which takes an equal amount off each side, gives a slightly different answer.
- Why are the fair odds useful?
- The no-vig price estimates the true chance, free of the book's margin. Bettors compare it to prices at other books to spot value, and it is the baseline for an expected value calculation.
- Does this work for three-way markets?
- This tool is built for two-way markets, like a point spread or a total. A three-way market, such as soccer with a draw, needs all three prices and the same idea extended to three outcomes.