game props
A Comprehensive Guide to Understand What a Game Prop Bet Is and How to Place One
Do you want to bet on something other than the ends of games? Have you been looking to get into sports betting but want to bet on something other than the final score? That’s what game props can be. These bets are a fine example of how betting is about so much more than just one game, one score, etc. With these bets, you have a great chance of betting on not just a game, but a player, a moment, and so much more .These have, in a very short period of time, becomes of the most popular kinds of bets for bettors all over the world.
With an understanding of how game and player props work, a smart bettor can really take advantage. In this blog, we’re going to discuss how these bets work, on what kind of site you can find them, and where they fit into the greater sportsbook world.
Game Prop Bet Defined
Simply put, this is any kind of bet that may have nothing to do with the final score of the game. You’re betting on an action in a game that may not influence what happens at the very end. That’s a very broad way of putting it, but that’s exactly how these kinds of bets work. Often, you aren’t necessarily betting on one team or another to win the game, rather, you’re betting on one player (or players) to accomplish something throughout the course of the game (or maybe in a given period).
A game prop bet is one that says a team will do something in a game, regardless of whether or not they win the game. One of the many reasons for the increasing popularity of these kinds of bets is that they make it possible to win multiple times throughout a game.
Consider: when you bet the point spread, really, you’re only betting on what the final score is going to be. Sure, you can win the bet, yes, but you can only win it once. Once the clock strikes zero (or the final out has been recorded, etc.) then you can collect on the bet. But, with a game prop, with player prop bets, then you can win throughout the game. You could win towards the beginning of the game (depending on the prop) and then just relax for the rest of the game. That’s just one of the many kinds of advantages of these kinds of bets.
Types of Game Prop Bets
The most common example of a prop bet is the Super Bowl. The NFL championship game is where people tend to encounter these bets for the first time. Which team will score the first touchdown? Which quarterback will throw the first interception? What color Gatorade will the winning team’s coach have poured on them? Those are prop bets. Do they have any real influence on how the football game ended? Perhaps, but that’s not what they’re meant to do. These bets, instead, are independent of the outcomes of games. They’re about other things.
Continuing with prop bet examples, one of the most popular is the coin toss. Will it be heads? Tails? Who’s going to take it? Will they receive or defer? How long will the national anthem go? Three minutes?
How long will the halftime show be? What songs will the artist perform?
Some Super Bowl prop bets actually go across sports to other games going on that Sunday. For example, popular proposition bets in Super Bowls past included what will be a higher number: touchdown passes thrown by Patrick Mahomes or assists by LeBron James.
Many of these bets will give you odds on a certain outcome. For example, one particular prop bet you might see in the Super Bowl is something like: “which defense is going to give up a score first?” One defense will be the favorite (most likely the one that statistical analysis says is better than the other, but if one team has a particularly good offense then that could influence the money line as to who is the underdog here, etc.)
Game Prop Bet Benefits
They add more categories of betting. Now, you can bet on so much more than just what’s going to happen at the end of a game. You can make a wager on what occurs throughout the game versus what adds up at the very end. This can add an incredible amount of excitement to just about any particular game or even season.
Many people use these bets when they root for a team that isn’t particularly good. Prop betting can be a fantastic way to work through plenty of pain about how their team is doing. Case in point: years ago, when the Cleveland Browns went an entire season without winning a single game (becoming only the second team to ever do so) many gamblers, even those who rooted for the Browns, bet on this occurring. That way, they could win money when that came to pass.
A prop bet parlay, if you’re smart, can win you a bunch of money. The odds may not be with you, but this can be a very lucrative proposition bet indeed. For example, one parlay prop bet could be that, on a given day, Mike Trout has to hit three home runs for the Angels, while Giannis Antetokounmpo has to get four three-pointers, and Sidney Crosby has to score a goal. That has a lot of moving parts (to say the very least), but, if you hit on all of that, your winnings could be massive indeed. With a prop bet, you can do practically anything.
Strategies for Placing Game Prop Bets
Research. As far as prop betting strategies, that is the most important. Make sure to get as much data as you can. The more you know, the more likely you’ll be able to take advantage of great game and team props. Amassing information doesn’t guarantee you that you’ll win a bet, obviously. But, it does give you a better chance of doing so than all of the users who didn’t think to do any research whatsoever.
Another important strategy: there’s nothing wrong with line shopping. There are plenty of sportsbooks out there that offer prop bets. Maybe one will give you a better moneyline on a particular bet, moreso than another might. By that same token, perhaps one is more lenient in terms of odds. There are, quite literally, thousands of sites out there that offer these kinds of bets. To find the best opportunity for yourself, to make the kind of bet that can put you on top, it pays to look around, to know all of the stats before you make a decision.
Now, in terms of “where do you find this information,” there’s a simple answer: reviews. Before you make a bet, read a review, find out what one site offers as well as what another does. Again, this doesn’t mean that you’ll automatically become a winner, but it does mean that you have a better chance of success than someone who didn’t do that much work.
What to Keep in Mind: Mistakes to Avoid With Game Prop Bets
Long shots are that way for a reason. Oddmakers know this. The prop markets know this, too. When you first find out about these new ways to bet, it can be intoxicating to kind of bet on all kinds of props. A good idea: stick to wagering on sports that you know. That way, you give yourself the best chance for success. It may be exciting to find out that, yes, you really can get a bet down on table tennis props. However, if you haven’t been following the sport for years, then maybe you shouldn’t just think you can swoop in and automatically pick up the difference on what makes one player better than another.
A good rule of thumb: if you know the game, bet on it. If not, maybe read some more reviews and look at other options.
Speaking of choices that you can make, there are dozens and dozens of sites out there. Go with the most reputable ones. Find ones that customers confirm is good, that has good word of mouth. Check out their website. If they have an app, look at it. Just as you’d research which active player had the most passing yards in a season, it stands to reason that you’d want to look at who’s got a quality site before plopping down your money.
Check out their features. Look into their name. See what states these apps are legal in, etc. Those are the kinds of details that can make one stand out from the rest.
Examples of Game Prop Bets
If you can think of a prop bet, it probably exists. Baseball is rife with them: which pitcher will throw the first strikeout, who’ll get the first hit of the World Series, will Arizona score before Pittsburgh, and so much more.
College football has so many of them, too. Will Tennessee score a touchdown before Connecticut? Will Wisconsin score a TD before the end of the first quarter? Don’t forget college basketball, either. Will Kentucky score first in the basketball game? Will Illinois score more points in the second half?
Hockey has many prop bets, but they tend to focus on goals, who scores them, how, and so forth. Soccer is good for prop bets. It may be long odds on one player or another scoring, but you can find a range of options in terms of who’ll shutout what team in what half, how much extra time there will be, and so forth.
Don’t think that prop betting is simply limited to team sports. Indeed, you can also have plenty of prop bets on sports like golf, boxing, MMA, etc. Who’ll hit the first birdie? Will this particular golfer have the best third round? What round will the fight end in? Will it end in a knockout? Who will score the first knockdown? And so forth.
Picking a Sportsbook Site for Prop Bets
When choosing from the variety of sites to make a deposit on and start an account with, one good rule of thumb: look for one that offers casino games. That may seem counterintuitive, but the truth is that a platform which can handle that traffic, the ones that come from offering the games that can be found at casinos, gives you the best chance of being able to make some real winnings from this site.
More Opportunities
Fun. Really, that’s what these bets are about. Instead of just betting on collective performance, you’re betting on what individuals can do, what one side can achieve. You don’t have to bet on what happens at the end of nine innings in an MLB game, you can bet on who got the most hits until that moment, who hit a home run in the first four and a half innings (or after that). How many strikeouts one team or pitcher had over another, etc.
The sheer number of options that this gives you in terms of betting on events can’t be overstated. Instead of just betting on a result, you’re betting on hundreds of events that can occur throughout sporting events.
You can bet on the number of touchdowns a running back will score in a game, or whether one team will have the most in the league.
In the NHL, you can bet on whether or not the game is going to go to a shootout. For the NBA, who’ll have the most points in the game, who’ll have the most blocks, etc.
The list of what these bets can be is practically endless. Oddsmakers today offer more options to bet on more different kinds of event than ever before. Now, instead of betting on what the teams have done by the end of the game, you can bet on what they’ve done throughout the game. Good luck to you!
