Is Vig Paid on Winning Bets
Yes, after you break it down:
The Washington Redskins are playing the New York Giants, with the bookmakers setting the moneyline at -110 for each team. 100 Redskins fans place a $110 bet to win $100 on their team at 5Dimes, and 100 Giants fans place a $110 bet to win $100 on their team at the same Sportsbook.
5Dimes has now taken $11,000 in bets on each team to win. Whichever team wins then half of the bets will win $100, and the other half of the bets will lose $110. This means the Sportsbook will be paying out $10,000 to the winning bets, while retaining the $11,000 of losing bets ? thus locking in a $1,000 profit whatever the result.
As you can see, the vig is beneficial to the bookmaker, and gives them a reason to keep taking our bets. While it may seem on first look to be something that only happens in sportsbooks, vigorish is also common in other forms of gambling, with one major example being the rake taken in poker.
