Prop bets or proposition bets are a type of side bet you can place on any given sports game, match, or event that doesn’t affect the final score or outcome of the game. These types of bets have exploded in the North American professional sports markets and allow sports bettors to place wagers on unique instances that occur.

There are different types of prop bets which allows for much more variety. You can bet on player props, which include odds on something a player might do, team props, which include odds on something a team as a whole might do, event props which includes something that might happen in the game by either team or something an official or fan might do, and entertainment props, which usually include something that happens during a halftime show or something of that nature.

With each sport, there will be different selections of prop bets that you can take advantage of. Props you may bet on for the NFL or Super Bowl will differ from prop bets you’d place on the NBA or NHL.

The best way to familiarize yourself with prop betting is to head over to the sportsbook and check which prop events are available on the sport you want to bet on, or you can follow along and we will help you understand prop betting a little bit better.

Why bet on props?

Prop betting is a light-hearted, fun way to bet on sports without having to pick a winner or rely too heavily on the winning team. You don’t even need to be an avid sports fan or professional handicapper to bet on sports by using prop betting. That’s not to say the professionals don’t dabble in prop betting, they absolutely do! We just want to make sure that beginners or those who have not bet on sports before understand that it’s quite easy to bet on props.

Betting on the same options day in and day out can be exhausting, moneyline after moneyline, point spread after point spread can get stale quickly. Spicing up your betting strategies and adding some fun props to your bet slip will help you from stagnating as a bettor.

The other reason bettors tend to choose props is because not all games are great betting opportunities if you’re simply sticking to the basic betting options. It doesn’t matter who wins – a team could be a massive favorite, ruling out the value on a moneyline or point spread wager, but you could place a bet on a certain underdog player to score a touchdown or that the underdog team will dominate the third quarter in scoring.

There are so many prop betting options that you can take advantage of, and that is all the value you need.

Prop Betting by Sport

The easiest way to look at prop betting is to look at how to bet on props for each major sport. As we mentioned, there are different prop options for each sport, even though they remain relatively similar.

NFL Prop Betting

Prop betting and the NFL go hand in hand. The Super Bowl is the biggest prop betting event of the year, and it’s not uncommon to bet on props regularly each and every week of the regular season. Props can be in the form of moneylines as a yes or no question, totals as an over/under option, futures as a list, and so on.

During the Super Bowl you might find the following prop bets:

• Coin toss result (Heads/Tails)
• Will the opening kickoff be a touchback (yes/no)
• Who will be the first team to score?
• How will the first score occur? (TD, FG, S, etc)
• What color is the Gatorade being dumped on the winning team’s coach?

Those are what we would call event or game props, they have to do with the game, but not any direct team’s actions.

Next, let’s look at player props. They will be outlined per player, usually, quarterbacks will have over/under odds on the following:

• Passing Yards
• Passing TDs
• Pass Completions
• Pass Attempts
• Interceptions
• Longest Completion
• Rushing Yards

The same can be said about the top Running Backs and receivers. You can easily find over/under style prop odds on receptions and receiving yards.

All offensive players will be on a list for the first player to score prop, as well as the anytime TD prop, which essentially means as long as that player scores a TD at any point in the game, your bet will cash.

You can also find these during the regular season on most games.

Betting on the Super Bowl MVP is always a fun prop – though if you wait too long and bet on the recipient mid-game, it may lean too far towards a particular favorite and the bet may not be worth placing.

You can also find props on the winner of each quarter, which essentially is asking you to predict which team will score the most points in a single quarter of the game. These are common during the regular season, and many professional bettors get plenty of value out of it.

NBA Prop Betting

If you tend to lean toward betting on the NBA, you can find some value betting on NBA prop bets. While these bets will typically follow the same principles as the NBA where applicable, there are some unique props available for basketball betting.

Many NBA props will take the form of an over/under wager. Basketball is such a high-scoring game, making it heavily points-driven and points accumulation is where the focus lies for NBA props.

You might bet on the number of points a particular player might score, how many rebounds they get, how many blocks, steals, turnovers, or three-pointers. A great example is to look at how many points Lebron James will score in a particular game. If the line is set at 31.5, you have to determine if you think Lebron James will score more or less than 31 points in the game. If you think he will score 31 or less, you pick the under, and if you think he will score 32 or more, you pick the over.

When it comes to NBA team prop bets, there are fewer options, but there’s plenty of value when looking to bet on any given game in the regular season, playoffs or the NBA Finals. The team prop bets will resemble a combination of a moneyline wager. There will be a question regarding a team’s performance, and both teams will be listed as they’re competing against one another, and you will have to decide which team you believe will achieve that outcome.

You could bet on the first team to score in an Indiana Pacers vs Washington Wizards game. If you believe that the Wizards will be the first team to score, you select them.

There are also props that focus on the game or event itself. They won’t have anything to do with either the team or the player, but just an occurrence in the game that could be of interest.
An example of that would be an over/under on the number of dunks that occur in the game, or the number of fouls in a quarter.

NHL Prop Betting

The NHL might not be as high-scoring as the other sports, where it’s much more difficult to score on a goaltender, but there are still some great prop bets you can take advantage of when watching any NHL game or during the Stanley Cup Finals.

Much like the other sports, many of the props you’ll find on the NHL will be player props, which allow you to bet on individual’s performances. How many goals a player might score in a game as an over/under or if a player will score at all as a yes or no question are popular NHL prop bets to make. You might want to bet on how many points Connor McDavid scores in a particular game. If the line is set at 2, and you think he might score a hattrick, you should take the over.

Other player props include how many shots a player will take, or how many saves a goalie might have.

When it comes to team props, you will be placing a wager on instances that have to do with a whole team. You could bet on which team will score the first goal, which is a very popular option, or which team will record the most points (goals and assists).

Then finally, there are Grand Salami prop bets, which are popular in NHL and MLB leagues, where you bet on the totals for all teams playing in that evening. It is like one giant totals bet for all the teams playing in any given evening. If there are six games, and each game accumulated 5 points, that would be a total of 30 points, if your set line was 24, the over bet would cash.

MLB Prop Betting

MLB prop bets can be a fun way to make things more interesting during the summer months. You can find a variety of team and player props available for MLB games during the regular season as well as the MLB postseason. During a time when there isn’t much else other than MLB in terms of the main North American professional sports – MLB betting gets a lot of attention.

MLB will have an assortment of player props, team props, and the Grand Salami prop we listed above.

Player props in MLB betting include hitting and pitching stats, such as the number of strikeouts, whether a player will hit a home run, total number of hits by a player, if a player might steal a base, and many more. There are so many options for both hitting and pitching, it can be overwhelming sometimes with how many options you can find for any given MLB game.

In terms of game props, you can find plenty of options of instances that might happen within the game itself, such as the total hits for both teams combined, the winning margin for either team (ex. Blue Jays by 2 runs), whether extra innings will be required, and many more.

Ready to start prop betting?

While we could cover all professional sports, we think you’re ready to start your prop betting journey. You can head over to our online sportsbook or sign up for a new account, take advantage of great sign-up bonuses, and start placing prop bets on your favorite sports.