Now, you may be looking into more interesting types of bets that you can place, like prop bets. These types of bets can be used if you want to drill down into a sporting event that you are interested in.
If you want to spice up your wagers on the sporting events you love and move beyond simple moneyline bets, prop bets could be a great option to explore.
What Are Prop Bets?
Prop bets are actually really easy to understand as long as you get sports betting.
Essentially, props are a type of bet that you can place on an occurrence that can happen during a sporting event. These occurrences that you can bet on need to have no bearing on the ultimate result of the game to be considered proposition bets.
So, usually, when someone thinks of sports betting, the person is thinking of an outright win bet. An outright win bet is just where a bettor places a bet on which team they believe will win a sporting event. But, this type of bet is not about who will win the sporting event you are betting on.
These bets are also known as proposition bets, but the name has been shortened in the betting world. They are also called prop, novelty, or side bets. So, now you know–if you see any of those terms, what they are referencing.
Types Of Prop Bets Explained
The existence of various possible outcomes in sports events has paved the way for many types of prop bets. There are four major categories: player, team, game, and novelty bets. Each bet is unique when it comes to which aspects you wish to predict.
Player Props
Pretty self-explanatory, these bets include elements about a single player’s performance. This may involve number of points, assists, touchdowns, runs, etc. For example, you may place an NBA bet on your favorite player.
Let’s imagine that you wish to bet on the All-Star NBA game. One of your favorite players is Steph Curry. So, you want to place a wager on the number of points Curry will score. Sportsbooks have set a 25.2 line for this.
This means that you can place an Over/Under bet. If you bet on Over and Curry scores 26 or more points, you will win the bet.
Team Props
Team props are basically global-level bets because they stand for the entire team’s performance. You can wager on the number of goals, corners, fouls, offsides, points, turnovers, etc.
We take a soccer match as an example to show you the simplicity behind a prop bet. In a, let’s say, Man City vs Liverpool game, you may come across different lines for the total number of goals for team one (Man City).
It may be that one of the lines is 1.5, and you believe that the host club will score fewer goals than that, so you bet on Under. If City scores one or fewer goals in that game, your bet will be a win.
Game Props
Game props technically represent placing prop wagers on both teams at the same time. More specifically, you place a wager on totals, that is, both teams’ performances mixed together.
Now’s the time to imagine an Oilers vs Panthers hockey game. If you think that the whole match will feature plenty of goals, you can see the lines for this game aspect. Usually, most online operators set the line between 5.5 and 6.5 goals.
Remembering your expectations about many goals, you can place an Over wager on this event. Should one team score three and the other one score four goals, it would mean that there were seven goals in total in this game and that your bet is successful.
Novelty Props
Another example of propositions bets doesn’t really refer to sports betting. Yet, the main idea behind prop bets is still there. This is because you can bet on politics, TV Shows, or other entertainment events from popular culture.
To exemplify, we bring you into the X Factor finals. There are a couple of contestants, and you may cheer for only one. Therefore, you place a bet estimating the competition winner for that season. You can do the same when the elections or other popular events are ongoing.
What Is A Prop Bet In Sports Betting?
So, now that you understand what a proposition bet is, you will want to know how to place these bets. And, that means finding the right kind of bets to place your money on. Each person will have their own idea for what the best prop bets are for each sport.
However, we can talk about the types of proposition bets that tend to be most popular. Keep in mind, some of the proposition bets you will find will only be specific to one type of sport. So, you should look into the specific types of bets that you can place on your favorite sport.
In baseball some popular bets are:
- The number of strikeouts a particular pitcher will get in a game
- The number of balls or strikes that a particular pitcher will get in a game
- The home run number a particular player will score
- How many times a particular player will get on base
- The number of times a particular player will strike out
In football some popular bets are:
- If you believe a non-offensive player will score any points in a game
- The number of tackles a particular player will get
- The number of yards a particular player will rush
In most sports, some popular bets are:
- Which team will score first in a game
- Which player will score first in a game
- The ultimate discipline records of either team or both in a match
- The exact timing of certain events
- The number of specific events that will occur in a game (specific to each type of sport)
- The number of specific events that will occur in a game per team (specific to each type of sport).
What Are The Pros And Cons?
These bets are diverse and feature both good and bad sides. That’s how you can enjoy the chance to narrow your bets to a very specific game element. Also, these bets are generally more versatile when it comes to available markets in comparison to traditional ones. Not to mention the excitement they may bring as well as high potential payouts.
On the other hand, propositions bets are more risky to place and usually require in-depth research if you wish for more success. In the long run, odds set for such bets work in favor of a sportsbook. Finally, such a large range of markets for prop bets may only be available for big events, thus limiting your possibilities to use them for every event.
| ✅Advantages | ⛔Disadvantages |
| You can focus on a specific aspect of a game. | More unpredictable than traditional bets. |
| Offer a wider variety of wagers compared to traditional bets. | This bet requires deeper research on player trends, matchups, or even weather conditions. |
| Some bets can offer significant payout if you win (novelty bets) | Bets are often set to favor the sportsbook (long-term odds are against you). |
| Increasing excitement and engagement. | While they add excitement, their availability is limited, often reserved for major events or specific markets by sportsbooks. |
Prop Betting Tips
The majority of prop betting guides pay special attention to the preparations you need to make before you place such bets. This is true due to the fact that there are lots of elements for you to consider and explore before embarking on this journey.
Player Performance
Needless to say, if you plan on placing player prop bets, you’ll need to do some research on players’ performances first. Besides, it is important to stay up to date with the latest injuries, news, or rumors regarding a certain player and his form.
In addition, you may take a closer look at particular player stats you may wager on and check, let’s say, the average number of three-pointers for an NBA player. To complete your research, you can get an insight into the other team’s three-pointer defensive skills and see if that’s the right bet for you.
Team Trends
In sports, every team has its strengths and weaknesses. This is exactly what’s important for you to know before wagering on specific aspects of a game. For instance, a team may have a very strong offensive line.
The same team may lack the ability to play defense efficiently at times. It’s obvious here that any type of your prop bets here should consider the number of goals/points of a team as a whole. The same goes for the top individual players who are part of the team’s strong offense.
Line Shopping
Checking a series of brands before wagering is a good way to enhance your potential winnings. The reason for this is that you can find the available odds for the market you wish to bet on.
More precisely, different sportsbooks may offer different odds for the same market. It goes without saying that you should pick the most competitive ones.
Public Betting Trends
More advanced bettors may be familiar with public trends. For those of you who wish to catch up, public trends stand for situations such as when a massive number of bettors wager on the same outcome in one single match.
Once operators notice this, they skew odds or lower their value. As the odds for one game aspect decrease, the odds for the completely opposite outcome typically go up.
In addition, the aforementioned opposite outcome may have a fair chance of coming true. Therefore, you may take advantage of this and place a bet with higher odds than usual, boosting your possible winnings.
Stay Informed
Just as we mentioned, keeping in mind all the information revolving around players, coaches, and teams in general is crucial for bringing your betting success rate up.
Speaking of players, you can look into their form, injury update, their rest days, and their relationship with a coach. Moreover, knowing the team atmosphere, as well as weather conditions on the day of the match, and the newest trades is also very helpful.
Lastly, it may even be a good idea to see the expert analyses on different social media and forums. These analyses mostly include explanations as to why you should pick a certain bet and discussions in which you can join yourself to broaden your knowledge.
What’s A Good Prop Bet?
So, as mentioned before, the types of prop bets that you can place vary from sport to sport. However, some of the bets can be placed across the board in almost any sport. You may need to do research before placing these kinds of bets as to the types that are available for each sport.
A good bet is one that you should be able to predict with a fair amount of accuracy. This means you will want to be sure that the event you are betting on will occur the way you think it will. And then, you will want to make sure you are placing the bet properly for it to play out in your favor.
For instance, if a particular player tends to be the first to score during a sporting event, this would be something to note. That way, if you want to place a proposition bet, you could bet that this player will be the first to score. Then, you will know there is a high chance that this bet will be a winning one.
What’s A Bad Prop Bet?
Conversely, there are also bad prop bets that you can place on sporting events. Because proposition bets can be based on a different set of odds, you will want to make sure you have done your research. You do not want to place this kind of bet on an occurrence that is not very likely to happen.
So, for example, say there are two particular teams that are very evenly matched and are going to play against each other. And, say that it often varies which player scores first when either of these teams plays a sporting event. Then, it would be a bad idea to place a bet on which player will score first in the match.
This is because you will not have very much data to back up the bet you are placing. So, you will be unsure if this will be a winning bet when it comes down to it. And, that is not a bet you should be placing at any time.
Really consider what props to make when you’re learning how to bet on basketball, there’s a lot to go through and one bad choice can ruin your whole slip!
Are Prop Bets Worth The Trouble?
You should be able to find the most common proposition bets listed on the majority of online sportsbooks without much trouble.
However, if you are interested in a very specific type of prop bets, you may need to do some searching. But, most online sportsbooks want to make it easy for you to place the most popular proposition bets.
When you want to place this type of bet, you should go to the sporting event match up that you want to bet on. Once you have selected the match, you should be able to find the types of bets that are available listed there. This should include the proposition bets that are available.
If the prop bets that interest you are not listed on your favorite sportsbook, you do have options. You can request different bets to be added to your online sportsbook in some instances. So, that means you should check and see if your online sportsbook will do this for you.
FAQs About Prop Betting
The last place where you’ll have prop bets explained is our FAQ section.
Sometimes, players call these bets a novelty, proposition, or side bet.
You can take one game element tied to a player, one team, or both teams together and place a wager on it. For instance, you can pick the Over/Under betting market for the total number of goals for both teams in a match. Furthermore, you may place novelty bets on politics, entertainment shows, or so.
The number of Super Bowl prop bets is just huge. Among them, you may wager on yardage props and touchdown scores. Plus, you can predict a player’s longest rush, etc.
You can receive prop bet payouts after they settle. Just like traditional bets, you can calculate your potential winnings by multiplying your stake amount with the total sum of winnings odds.
The answer is yes. You can join the in-play betting section on a platform and place live prop bets with some special live odds.
Ultimately, prop bet odds slightly favor operators over bettors. Statistically, this means that you may have smaller chances of winning. However, if you do your part of the job well, you can turn this to your advantage.
