# Hold

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Canonical: https://novigapi.com/learn/hold

Hold is the percentage of the money wagered on a market that the bookmaker expects to keep if it takes balanced action on every outcome.

```
hold = 1 - 1 / sum(q_i), where q_i is the implied probability of each outcome
```

Hold is the sportsbook's expected cut of the total handle on a market. If a market has a 4.5% hold and the book takes $1,000,000 spread so that it pays the same whatever happens, it keeps about $45,000. Bettors use hold to compare markets and books: lower hold means you pay less to bet. Regulators and operators also report actual hold, the share of handle the book really kept, which differs from theoretical hold because action is rarely balanced.

## How it works

Add up the implied probabilities of every outcome to get S. Hold is 1 - 1/S. The logic: to guarantee a $1 payout on whichever outcome wins, you would need to bet q_i on each outcome, for a total of S. The book keeps S - 1 of that, and S - 1 over S is the hold. The overround, S - 1 alone, is always a little larger than the hold.

## Worked example

Hold on common two-way prices

| Side A | Side B | Implied sum | Overround | Hold |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| -105 | -105 | 102.439% | 2.439% | 2.381% |
| -110 | -110 | 104.762% | 4.762% | 4.545% |
| -115 | -105 | 104.708% | 4.708% | 4.496% |
| -120 | -120 | 109.091% | 9.091% | 8.333% |


Reduced-juice -105 lines cost about half as much as standard -110 lines. A -120/-120 market, common on player props, holds almost twice as much as -110. You can paste any market into the [hold calculator](https://novigapi.com/hold-calculator), and the [no-vig calculator](https://novigapi.com/no-vig-calculator) shows the fair price once the hold is removed.

## On Novig

Novig does not take the other side of your trade, so there is no hold in the sportsbook sense. The closest equivalent is what it costs to buy both sides at once. If the best Yes bid is 55% and the best No bid is 42%, buying Yes costs 58% and buying No costs 45%, a total of 103%. The hold-equivalent is 1 - 1/1.03 = 2.913%. On busy markets the spread narrows, and buying both sides at 51% and 50% costs only 101%, a hold-equivalent of 0.990%. On live game markets add the taker fee, 0.06 x P x (1 - P) per contract, per [Novig trading fees](https://docs.novig.com/api/concepts/fees) (checked 12 Nov 2026).

## Common mistakes

- Reporting the overround as the hold. On a -120/-120 market they differ by three quarters of a point.
- Comparing hold across different market types without noting the outcome count. A 20-team future will always hold more than a moneyline.
- Assuming low hold means sharp. A book can run low hold on main lines and high hold on props in the same game.

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