Glossary / Betting math / Overround
A ParlayAPI glossary entry

Overround

Overround is a synonym for vig: the percentage by which a market's implied probabilities sum past 100%. A two-way market priced -110/-110 carries a 104.76% overround, i.e. 4.76% of margin for the bookmaker.

In practice

Overround is the natural way to compare pricing quality across books and market types. Two-way game lines at sharp books commonly run 102–105%; multi-way markets run much higher - a 3-way soccer market or a golf outright can carry an overround well above 110%, which is why the same bankroll bleeds faster in exotic markets.

# Compute overround from any odds response
        overround = sum(implied(p) for p in market_prices)
        # -110/-110         -> 1.0476  (4.76% margin)
        # -105/-105         -> 1.0244  (2.44% margin, "reduced juice")

Where it shows up in ParlayAPI

Every ParlayAPI odds payload contains the full per-book price set for a market, so overround is one line of arithmetic per book. Comparing overrounds is the quickest way to find which book is cheapest to bet into for a given market - the same comparison the best-line view makes across 45+ sportsbooks & sources.

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