Glossary / Betting math / Hold
A ParlayAPI glossary entry

Hold

Hold is the bookmaker's expected profit margin on a market: the fraction of total handle the book keeps if action is balanced. It is computed from the overround as overround / (1 + overround), which is why hold is always slightly smaller than the vig percentage on the same market.

Worked example

# -110/-110 market
        implied sum = 1.0476
        overround   = 0.0476                    # 4.76%
        hold        = 0.0476 / 1.0476 = 4.55%  # of balanced handle

On two-way markets vig and hold are near-interchangeable in casual use; the distinction matters on multi-way markets, where hold correctly expresses the margin as a share of all money wagered. Industry reports also use “hold” for a book's realized win percentage over a period, which mixes margin with luck.

Where it shows up in ParlayAPI

With all books' prices in one response, per-book hold comparisons fall out of the feed for free. Low-hold books tend to be the sharp books whose prices are the best public proxy for fair value - the reason they get used as the devig anchor.

Related terms