A sportsbook is a gambling establishment that accepts wagers on various sporting events. Its purpose is to collect bettors’ winnings and pay the losers from its total income. Its profitability depends on how well it calculates the odds of a game. In addition, it must have a solid reputation for treating its customers fairly and paying out winnings promptly.

Legal sportsbooks are popping up across the country after the Supreme Court struck down the federal ban on them. This ruling gave states the green light to open their own sportsbooks and regulate them. The best online sportsbooks feature a variety of betting options and competitive odds. The top sites also offer bonuses and a user-friendly mobile app for players to access their accounts on the go.

The main ways that sportsbooks make money are by charging a commission, or “vigorish,” on losing bets and using the remaining amount to pay bettors who win. This is a standard practice in the industry. The vigorish is usually around 10%, but it can vary by sportsbook.

In addition to vigorish, sportsbooks take advantage of sharp bettors by offering low-hanging fruit on games that aren’t likely to draw a large number of bets. These games are often referred to as locks, and the sportsbook will lower its limits for them in order to prevent sharp bettors from grabbing them before others do. In other cases, the sportsbook will simply pull the game off the board altogether and refund all bets placed on it.