What the cash-out button is
A cash-out is the sportsbook buying your bet back before the game ends. The offer is not a gift and not a guess: it is what your ticket is worth at the live price, with the book's own cut taken off the top.
Books are not required to offer cash-out at all, they can pull it at any moment, and the number moves with every play. So the useful question is never "is this a good offer?" in the abstract, but "how far below fair value is it?"
The formula
A bet placed at a win chance p pays back 1 ÷ p times the stake if it wins. Fair value in the middle of the game is that full payout times the live chance the bet now has. After the book's cut, the offer is roughly:
- offer ≈ stake × (live chance ÷ chance when you bet) × (1 − the book's cut)
Books typically sit about 5–15% under fair value. The stake never changes the multiple: $20 and $2,000 on the same ticket cash out at the same multiple of what was put in.
A worked example
You bet a favorite at −130. That price implies a 56.5% chance to win. Late in the game your team is ahead and now about 80.0% to win.
- Fair value: 80.0% ÷ 56.5% = 1.42× your stake.
- A typical offer, 5–15% under fair: about 1.20× to 1.34× your stake.
- The full win, if the bet comes in: 1.77× your stake. Cashing out trades the rest of that for certainty.
For an offer after a 10% cut to beat your stake at all, the live chance has to pass 62.8%. Below that, cashing out locks in a loss, however good the scoreboard looks.
So should you take it?
That is your call, and it depends on things only you know. What the math does tell you: an offer is never more than fair value, the gap is the book's fee for the exit, and an offer below your stake is a loss you are choosing to lock in.
The moment worth checking the button is when the live chance is well above the chance you bet at, with time still on the clock. That is what CacheOut's alerts watch for on NFL, college football and NBA picks; the decision, and the bet, stay at your own sportsbook.
Not betting advice. 21+ where permitted.