Your Opportunity Cost

Sports Betting Cost Calculator ($)

What does sports betting cost you?

How you bet

Use whichever number you know best.

Losses estimated from sportsbook averages.

Money you bet

The total of all your bets, including bets placed with winnings.

$
years
Assumptions (edit to match your situation)
%
% / yr
% / yr

Over the next 10 years, sports betting will likely cost you about

$0in losses
$0
this year
$0
a month
$0
a day
0
Chipotle bowls you could buy instead

Money betLost
This year$0$0
Next 5 years$0$0
All 10 years$0$0

If you invested it instead

View as a table
YearMoney lostIf invested

What if?

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Ways to cut what betting costs

Every dollar you don't lose to a sportsbook is a dollar that can grow for you instead.

Get free help, 24/7

Call or text 1-800-MY-RESET (1-800-697-3738), or chat online through the National Council on Problem Gambling. It's free and confidential.

Set limits first

Legal sportsbook apps let you cap deposits, losses, and time. Set them before you bet, not after a loss.

Skip parlays

Sportsbooks keep about 18.5% of parlay money, versus about 5.5% on single bets.

Take a break

Apps offer cool-off periods, and most states run self-exclusion programs that block you from every licensed sportsbook.

Find a meeting

Gamblers Anonymous holds free meetings in person and online.

Move the money

Set up an automatic transfer of what you used to bet into savings or an index fund.

Why the sportsbook comes out ahead

  • Every bet has a built-in cut. At standard odds (−110), you risk $110 to win $100. You'd have to win 52.4% of your bets just to break even.
  • Parlays multiply the cut. Each extra leg adds the sportsbook's edge again. In 2025, sportsbooks kept about 18 to 19 cents of every dollar bet on parlays, compared with about 10 cents across all bets. Same-game parlays usually cost even more.
  • Wins happen, but the cut adds up. Any week or year can go either way. Over hundreds of bets, most people end up losing close to the sportsbook's cut of everything they bet.

How this calculator works

Your results are estimates based on these assumptions:

  • Losses match the sportsbook's cut. If you enter what you bet, your expected loss is that amount times the sportsbook's cut: about 10% across all U.S. bets in 2025, about 18.5% for parlays, and about 5.5% for single bets on sides, totals, and moneylines (props and futures usually cost more). Your actual results will be higher or lower.
  • Same habit every year. You keep betting the same amount for all the years you enter, rising 2% a year with inflation.
  • Investments return 10% a year, about the S&P 500's average since 1928 with dividends reinvested. Like your bets, it isn't adjusted for inflation. Returns swing a lot from year to year, so treat it as an illustration, not a forecast.
  • A Chipotle chicken bowl costs $10.75 today and rises with the same inflation.
  • Other costs aren't included, such as debt, interest, or stress, so your true cost may be higher.
For reference: in a 2024 survey, U.S. sports bettors spent a median of $750 on gambling over the past year. Heavy bettors pull the average up to $3,284.
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Sources