What is a prop bet?
Prop bets are wagers on things that may or may not happen within the game but aren’t necessarily relevant to the outcome of the game being played. Here we will explain what is a prop bet.
What are some examples of what would be considered a prop bet?
Many kinds of prop bets are offered and the bigger the game the larger the amount of the assortment of prop bets. A prop bet can be based on something as arbitrary as who is going to win the coin toss to what player will score the first touchdown of the game.
It can be how many yards a particular player will run or receive for; these are usually in an over/under format or they can be done on several levels as number ranges. Each different type of prop bet is handled differently. Usually, on the over/under or in the case of a scenario like will a particular player accomplish a certain feat or won’t they, odds are assigned to each side based on perceived probability.
In the case of what player will score the first touchdown, there are odds assigned to about 8-10 different players (about 5 from each team), and the rest of the remaining players are usually grouped into one heading called the field.
Once again just like all other types of wagers and betting lines, the lines adjust as the wagers come in but once a wager is placed it is locked into whatever the odds were at the time the wager was placed. There is really no limit as to what sportsbooks, casinos, and online sportsbooks can take wagers on when it comes to prop bets and it’s usually fun to at least take a look at what is being offered.
Prop bets being offered can vary widely from book to book. For a larger event like the Super Bowl, the World Cup, or the Olympics there can be literally hundreds of offerings, some of which have nothing to do with the actual game.
For example: You can bet on how long it will take to sing the National Anthem during the Super Bowl. If you enjoy prop bets you’ll want to look through the offerings at many sportsbooks and you can find a guide to the best and most reputable online sportsbooks here.
A quick recap of prop bets
Example 1:
The team that will win the coin toss will be:
Alaska State -110
Wyoming Tech -110
At this point in this reading the above example should appear very straightforward to you. In a nutshell, you are just picking who you feel will win the coin toss to begin the game.
Example 2:
Who will score the first touchdown of the game between Alaska State and Wyoming Tech?
M. Jagger 5-1
K. Richards 9-1
C. Watts 14-1
B . Wyman 12-1
R. Wood 7-2
Field 8-1
The above example just lists a few players playing in a game (an actual game may have many more players listed) and a field option for those players not listed. To the right of their names, we see odds that correlate to that specific player being the one who accomplishes the feat described, which in our example is scoring the first touchdown of the game.