Prop Betting Strategies – Unlock the Potential of Proposition Bets
Have you ever been interested in placing bets on random occurrences during a sports event or game? We’re talking about fun bets like correctly guessing the winner of the coin toss or the color of Gatorade that will be dumped on the coach after a big win, as well as skilled bets like correctly predicting the total number of combined three-pointers during a basketball game. Welcome to the wild world of propositional betting, sports wagers placed on occurrences and non-occurrences during the game.
The enormous appeal of prop betting online is that it gives gamblers more excitement and diversity in their betting experience. Because props bets aren’t always dealing with 50/50 outcomes, they can be a fun challenge and allow you to wager on aspects of the event outside the final outcome. There are multiple end results with prop bets, so they can be volatile wagers that could make it easy to lose your money. However, bettors who research what’s happening stand a great chance of winning these bets!
Our guide on prop betting will outline examples of these propositional wagers, how placing prop bets works, navigating potential risks, and some practical strategies for making the most of your prop betting endeavors. Before you know it, you’ll know more about propositional bets than you thought possible. We’re not saying you’ll be an expert or anything like that (you have to try your hand with these wagers and gain a little experience), but you’ll have a leg up on many other casual bettors knowing the different ways of going about prop bets.
The Basics of Prop Betting
Prop bets or propositional bets are wagers that sports bettors can make on occurrences and non-occurrences during a game, match, or event, and they typically have nothing to do with the final outcome. Prop bets are unlike single bets with two primary outcomes—they can have multiple outcomes and are, therefore, high-variance bets that give a lesser chance of winning (most of the time).
Prop bets are sometimes referred to as novelty bets or side bets. A few examples of propositional bets that you would find with your favorite online betting sites include the following:
- The first team to score in a game, event, or match
- The total number of rushing yards
- The first player to get a rebound
- The combined number of 3-pointers scored between two NBA teams
- The length of the national anthem at the Super Bowl
- The winner of the coin toss
With prop betting, the sky’s the limit. You could bet on many aspects of a game or event, so these wagers can cover a wide range of betting possibilities. Due to their popularity with casual bettors, fun prop bets are all over the place in online sportsbooks.
Exploring Different Types of Prop Bets
A gambler can place a prop bet on their favorite games, matches, or events in several ways. Skill-based props focus on individual players, teams, the game, or the season itself. Novelty props are wagers that are more lighthearted and fun for bettors looking for something different. Let’s explore the prop bets at the average online sportsbook.
Player Props
Player props focus on individual player performance. Examples include correctly predicting the total points, assists, or goals that any player might score during the game. One of the most basic player prop bets is the touchdown prop bet in football. You’re placing a wager on whether or not a particular player will score a touchdown. While this prop has a 50/50 likelihood of occurring, there are other touchdown props where the bettor will try to correctly guess the number of touchdowns in a single game, a higher variance bet, to be sure!
If you’re dealing with basketball, a few examples of player props would be:
- The number of three-pointers made
- The number of blocks
- The number of assists performed
You get the idea. It’s bets like these that make prop betting so much fun, but also quite uncertain because they don’t always offer two outcomes like you’d find with money lines, total bets, or point spreads.
Team Props
Another way to enjoy prop betting is to place wagers on specific teams—they aren’t focused on particular players. Individual competitors are entirely taken out of the equation. Team props solely focus on team performance for a given side.
A few notable examples would be:
- The total points scored by that team
- A team leading the score in all four quarters of the game
- Whether or not a team will score a defensive touchdown
Even though many of these bets can feature more than two outcomes, there are ways to do team props with two outcomes: money lines, over/under totals, or point spreads.
Many of these team props allow bettors to play it safe and enjoy bets with two primary outcomes, but there are ways to structure these bets to enjoy improved odds, such as halftime/full-time results or three-way money lines that offer bettors the chance to bet on a possible tie.
Game Props
If you’re interested in betting on occurrences or non-occurrences during a game or event, check out game props set around over/under totals, spread/handicaps, or money lines. Game props can also be divided into smaller segments such as halves, quarters, or innings.
Examples of game-specific prop bets include the following:
- Will a goal be scored in the first ten minutes of the game?
- Which team will get the most strikeouts?
- Which team will get to ten points first?
Season Props
Like future betting, season props are wagers where bettors can predict the season’s final outcomes long-term. If you feel confident a particular player will be awarded the MVP Award at the end of the season, you can place a season prop bet. Another example would be correctly predicting a Super Bowl Winner or the Rookie of the Year title winner.
Ultimately, we wouldn’t recommend season props for new bettors with little experience or knowledge of the market, team, or player they’re betting on. Due to the long-term nature of these bets, they can already be challenging to get right, even for seasoned bettors with a lot of data or statistical analysis at their fingertips. Newbie bettors should stick with simple team or player props for simplicity’s sake and to increase the likelihood of a win!
Novelty Props
This is the side of prop betting that gets into more obscure wagers, but ones that can be a lot of fun to partake in. A few of our favorite examples of novelty props include the following:
- Who will win the coin toss at the beginning of the game?
- How long will it take for the national anthem to be sung?
- What color will the Gatorade be that gets dumped on the coach of the winning team?
Novelty props can even extend into non-sport-related elements of the event, like occurrences or non-occurrences during a halftime show.
Understanding the Mechanics of Prop Betting
The process of choosing prop bets on your favorite sportsbook, applying them to your bet slip, and knowing when you’ve won is pretty simple once you’ve done it once or twice. The more frequently you try your hand at prop bets and do the proper research to get them right, the more you’ll find that some of them can be profitable and help you make steady gains in your bankroll, while others are for plain old fun!
Placing a Prop Bet
Most online sportsbooks have a prop betting section with many different lines and odds available to daring bettors. It’s simple to find these betting opportunities, make your selections, and add them to your bet slip. What’s available will differ from one sportsbook to the next, but you can check the options even if you’re not a member of the app. Click “View the Odds” to see the lines and odds currently running.
Some typical prop bets for each of the major sports markets include:
Football
- The number of touchdowns the QB will throw
- The number of rushing yards
- The number of receiving yards
Baseball
- How many strikeouts a pitcher will record
- How many home runs a team will hit
- How many bases a player will steal
Basketball
- The total points scored by a particular player
- The # of rebounds or assists a player achieves
- The combined total score for the first quarter
- The number of three-pointers made by one player
Hockey
- How many strikeouts a pitcher will record
- How many home runs a team will hit
- How many bases a player will steal
As discussed in the last section, there are a few ways to place props bets: player, team, season, game, and novelty props. If viewing the odds in Standard American format, the favorite to win is signified by a negative sign (-), and the underdog is signified by a positive sign (+). Bets on the favorite usually have you risking more money for a minimal payout, while a bet on the underdog involves less risk but the promise of a bigger payout.
Odds and Payouts
Bookmakers initially set up the odds based on what they feel is the true likelihood of any prop scenario occurring. However, these lines are subject to shifting based on external factors that affect the outcome of the game or event. These are changes such as shifts in the weather, playing at a different venue, player injuries or suspensions, or roster changes due to trades. You can view the odds on any sportsbook, which will fluctuate as news about the upcoming game or event comes out.
However, odds will also shift based on the bookmakers trying to balance out betting action on both sides of the bet. For instance, you could have a ton of the betting public wanting to bet on the Phoenix Suns winning the tip at the beginning of the game over the Milwaukee Bucks. The bookmakers will lower the price on odds for the Bucks to get more people to bet on the other side, thus creating odds that don’t reflect the likelihood of either event occurring.
Let’s take that example of who will win the tip between the Suns and Bucks to show you how to calculate a payout on a prop bet. The Suns are favored to win the tip, and let’s say they have odds of -110, while the underdog Bucks have odds of +210. You must bet $110 on the Suns, and if they win the tip, you win $100 for a total payout of $210 (you get your stake back). If you bet $100 on the Bucks and they win the tip, you win $210 for a total of $310!
Effective Strategies for Prop Betting
It takes time and effort to learn about prop bets and to get good at placing prop bets that result in a winning payout. We’ve included tips and strategies for a practical prop betting approach to keep you winning more than losing.
Research and Analysis
With any sports bet, it’s best to conduct some basic, if not thorough, research on your betting selections to ensure you’re placing the best bet possible. If you know nothing about the teams, players, or matchups you’re looking at, you likely place a bet in ignorance. The more you know about a team, market, or individual player, the likelier you are to see the big picture and pick up on the nuances of the situation that are likely to predict the overall outcome.
We recommend reviewing team or player statistics and historical data to inform your bet. Statistical analysis can help you understand competitors either building momentum or losing steam. Look at head-to-head matchups between teams or players to see the likelihood of who might come out on top.
Historical performance is something essential to take into account. This highlights players’ or teams’ past performances in certain situations, such as specific weather conditions, playing at certain venues, or strengths/weaknesses in particular quarters, halves, or innings of the game.
Developing a narrative for the season in your mind can help you better understand the possible trajectory of teams or players weekly. This can help you inform your betting decisions and make better picks on your prop bets.
Specializing in Specific Props
The key takeaway with successful prop bets: choose props with fewer outcomes for best results. There’s also something to be said about playing team and player props because more statistics and analysis make them easier to predict.
Specific prop bets are better than others for making a profit or for winning more often than not. The key is choosing props with fewer possible outcomes. Consider a prop where you’re betting on which basketball player will score the game’s first basket. With ten people playing on the court, this prop has ten different outcomes. Instead of choosing a prop like this, where your chances of winning are significantly lower, select one where you’re trying to correctly predict which team will win the tip at the beginning of the game. This bet has only two outcomes, and you stand a 50% chance of having your bet win!
It’s also much easier to get player or team props correct versus season props, where you’re betting far in advance on events that could be weeks or months away. You have the advantage of consulting player or team statistics to inform these props, and many of them are formatted where there are two potential outcomes.
Bankroll Management
All sports betting should involve good, responsible management of your gambling funds. Whether you know it or not, your two ultimate goals with online sports betting should be to make a steady profit over time and enjoy the experience. Many gamblers miss these two things because they don’t grasp the money well. The better you can manage your bankroll, the better your online betting experience will be!
Follow these strategies and best practices to manage your gambling funds responsibly:
- Create a gambling budget. It’s an amount that’s separate from your regular money. It’s money that you can afford to lose if your luck goes south.
- Stick to your budget. Don’t go over.
- Don’t fall into the trap of chasing losses. This happens when you stack your bet size to compensate for lost money. Don’t do this.
- Set up a bet size. An excellent way to do this is to take 1-2% of your bankroll and use this amount across all bets.
- Set up time limits on your gambling session. Don’t hesitate to take frequent breaks during your session.
- Avoid gambling when you’re frustrated or upset. You get into the emotional betting territory, and this can cause you to make bad financial decisions.
- Take advantage of sportsbook bonuses or promos to fund your bankroll.
- Shop the betting lines for value. Do good research on the teams or players you’re betting on.
- Don’t be tempted to up your betting size on bets you feel are a sure thing. Keep your betting size a consistent 1-2% of your bankroll. Scale the bet size up and down based on your balance fluctuation.
The more often you can employ these responsible bankroll management techniques, the better your overall experience will be. Even if you’re taking your lumps and going through a string of losses with sometimes volatile prop bets, responsible bankroll management can keep you grounded and help you maintain a consistent approach.
Risk Management
The most significant risk you’re dealing with in prop betting is the prospect of staking money on scenarios with multiple outcomes. With singles bets, you’re betting on a 50/50 chance, like correctly predicting the winner of a game or the team that covers the spread. However, prop bets are far more volatile because they can be hard to predict. For instance, in a prop bet that revolves around the number of three points a team or player might make, there are multiple ways the bet could play out.
Some of the best strategies for minimizing losses include:
- Doing good research on your prop bet selections
- Choosing team or player props that involve two outcomes
- Keeping your bet units conservative and consistent
- Staying committed to your budget and time limits
- Avoiding the mistake of chasing your losses
The best way to manage the risk of multiple outcomes in prop bets is to reference player or team statistics and historical data points to make the best possible prediction rooted in research and insight. If you can play prop bets right, you stand a good chance of winning a better payout than you could with a single bet!
Examples of Successful Prop Betting
To better understand prop betting, let’s look at an example of a successful prop bet and analyze the parts of the bet that make it profitable and worth your time.
Successful Prop Bets
Let’s look at the game again between the Phoenix Suns and the Milwaukee Bucks:
Suns
Bucks
-110
+210
The Suns are favored to win the tip at the beginning of the game, while the Bucks are slated to lose the tip. Up front, we want to point out that these prop bets will be the best because there are only two possible outcomes, making your chances of getting the bet right at 50%.
A bet on the Suns involves more risk than the Bucks. It’s a $110 stake versus a $100 stake. It’s safer to bet the favorite in this case if research is backing up the theory. So, all you have to do is bet $100, and when the Suns win the tip, you win $100.
However, if you’ve looked through past performance, head-to-heads, and statistical analysis and feel that the Bucks might cause a surprise upset and win the tip, we’d recommend betting Milwaukee. For a stake of $100, you could win $210 for a total payout of $310.
It all comes down to doing your research on the teams and players. You also have to decipher the odds and discern if they represent the real probability or if the bookmakers are trying to balance out the action. Once these factors are lined up, you can confidently choose and find an edge that serves you!
Lessons Learned
Looking back over the Suns and Bucks example again. This was the scenario where bettors were trying to correctly predict the winner of the tip at the beginning of the game. This prop bet taught us several things:
- It’s best to choose prop bets with as few outcomes as possible to increase the likelihood of a winning ticket.
- To inform your final bet, you must review data, matchups, and past performances.
- Always examine the numbers to find out if the line movement is a result of an external factor that actually affects the likelihood of the outcome or if it’s the book trying to balance the action.
Once you begin seeing prop betting in this kind of light, it can open your eyes to how you spot value and opportunities in the numbers and the importance of knowing your markets, teams, and players before making an ill-informed bet. It can be easy to bet the favorite in a case like this, but you must dig deeper to find the truth.
Experienced prop bettors would tell you it’s best to bet on only two outcomes if you’re interested primarily in bankroll growth and making incremental gains over time. It’s okay to be more advanced props occasionally, especially if you want to post some losses on the board to manage your relationship with the bookmakers.
Navigating the Risks in Prop Betting
Prop betting can be a risky proposition (no pun intended) due to its high variance and the careless mistakes that new bettors can possibly make in the early stages of their online betting experiences. Knowing the primary risks of these bets can help you to sidestep some significant mistakes and do prop betting the right way!
High Variance
If you want to succeed with online sports betting, your top priority should be growing your bankroll in steady, incremental steps. Part of the reason for this comes with the inevitable losses gamblers incur from time to time (growth can be slow), and the other reason is discovering a way to be profitable but not arouse the suspicion of the bookmakers, which forces you to proceed in smaller steps.
You are likely to win depending on the prop bet you’re wagering on. However, it must be a prop set up with only two outcomes. For instance, betting a prop where you must correctly predict the team leading in points for a particular quarter of the game has only two potential outcomes. Some props might have four or five outcomes, bringing the likelihood of winning lower—these are high-variance bets. They pay out well, but there’s a good chance you’ll lose the bet.
Betting too many high-variance bets could increase your losses. If your bankroll isn’t substantial, it can be easy to burn through all your money, especially if you’re playing prop bets with multiple outcomes. If you’re newer to sports betting but want to enjoy prop betting, we recommend only betting on props with two outcomes. The simpler you keep things, the better.
Bookmaker Limitations
A problem you can run into as you get more familiar with prop betting is getting consistently good closing line value. While this is good for the bettor, it’s not great for the sportsbook because it cuts in on their profit. Bettors who take the time to research their picks and play props with fewer possible outcomes have the potential to get good closing line value consistently. The problem is that the bookmakers are known to put betting limits into place or close the accounts of these players to throttle their success.
What is the best way to avoid these limitations by the bookmakers? The answer is to go undetected so you don’t wind up in that situation in the first place. It’s essential to come across, as much as possible, as a recreational bettor who experiences as many losses as the average recreational bettor.
One method for looking like a part of the average betting public is purposely throwing a few bets. It sounds nuts, but it helps mask your success by getting good closing line value. Consider choosing props that are more complicated with several outcomes and throw the bet on purpose to post a loss. If you can post some regular losses amid your successes, the bookmaker might not notice that you’re making steady gains over time.
Human Error
One of the biggest blunders bettors can make with prop betting is inadequate research on the selections and picks. You shouldn’t wing prop betting by going off personal hunches or your gut, especially the more complicated props where you should look for statistics and data to get the best possible predictions.
Don’t let laziness or the human error that comes with misinterpreting data stand in the way of making good picks on prop bets and winding up on the winning side of the curve. A great tool to improve your accuracy and efficiency with prop bets are free odds comparison sites and online statistical analysis tools. They can help you find the best deals on the sportsbooks you’re using and the top picks that can clinch a win for you!
Prop Betting FAQs
If you’re curious to see what many of our customers and readers are asking about prop betting, we’ve included the most common questions and some quick answers to help you get the critical points of our prop betting guide.
Can I Parlay Prop Bets?
Yes, some sportsbooks allow bettors to parlay props, but it’s something that you’ll have to check on before using the sportsbook. Because prop bets don’t always have two primary outcomes, they can quickly throw off a parlay bet. It’s much more preferable to parlay using moneylines, over/under totals, or point spreads.
What Is a Prop Bet?
Prop bets are wagers on occurrences or non-occurrences in a game, match, or event. They don’t have anything to do with the final outcome or the way singles bets are designed; instead, they focus on individual player or team performance or things that transpire during a game or season. There are also novelty props for random game events, such as a coin toss winner or how long it takes for the national anthem to be sung.
What Are Player Props?
These prop bets focus solely on individual player performance, such as the number of assists made or three-pointers scored by a specific player. You can find more player props than this, but these are a few examples. Some of these bets can be set up where there are two outcomes, but many involve multiple outcomes that require good research to predict correctly.
Are Props Bets Good Bets?
It depends on which prop bet you’re playing. For instance, if you’re betting a prop on whether a particular player will score a touchdown during a football game, you’re dealing with a 50/50 proposition and stand a good chance at winning this bet. However, a prop bet where you’re trying to correctly predict the correct number of three-pointers a player will score in a basketball game involves multiple outcomes. It could be a risky bet to undertake.
What Are Team Props?
Team props focus solely on team performance–it involves only one side of the game. You could bet on a team leading all four quarters of a game or correctly predicting how many points a particular team might score in the first half or first quarter of the game.
What Does “Prop” Mean in Prop Bet?
“Prop” is short for a propositional bet. Sportsbooks offer These wagers as an alternative to point spreads/handicaps, money lines, and over/under totals. Props are bets on occurrences and non-occurrences during a game or event—many prop bets have multiple outcomes, but some offer two end results and can be easier to predict.
How Do Prop Lines Move?
Prop lines and odds shift based on many external factors like weather conditions, team roster changes, player injuries or suspensions, and many others. Oddsmakers will move the line to reflect the actual likelihood of each outcome occurring. Line shifts also happen when the bookmakers attempt to balance action on either side of a bet. Often, these shifts don’t reflect the true likelihood of each outcome.
What Are Some of the Risks Associated with Prop Betting?
Prop bettors that get consistently good closing line value can fall risk to bookmaker limitations such as betting restrictions or their account being closed down. Another significant risk is that prop bets don’t always have two outcomes, so bettors risk losing their stake due to the lower likelihood of the bet winning.
How Do I Calculate Payouts on Prop Bets?
Using Standard American odds, the favorite will be represented with a negative number like -110, and the underdog will be represented with a positive number like +110. A $110 bet on the favorite will yield a $100 profit for a total of $210. Betting on the underdog costs less ($100), but if the dog wins outright over the favorite, bettors will win $110 in profit for a total of $210 once they get their original bet back.
What Are the Best Strategies for Prop Betting?
Even if you’re dealing with a prop with two outcomes, it’s best to familiarize yourself with the teams or players involved in the bet. Look at past performance by referencing historical data and look over head-to-head matchups between players or teams to see how they would stack up against one another. A good practice when choosing prop bets that win is to avoid the bets with several outcomes.
Start Your Prop Betting Journey Today
A prop bet is like making a casual bet with your friend when you were young. It could be about almost anything that you were experiencing at the time. In prop betting, you are staking money on nearly anything that happens or doesn’t happen throughout a sports game or event. Which team will score the most in the first quarter? Who will get the most assists or rebounds? Will a specific team lead the entire game in points?
Remember these key principles about prop betting as you go forward:
- Focus on prop bets with two outcomes, especially if you plan to parlay that bet.
- Use historical data on past performance, statistical analysis, and head-to-head matchups to inform your prop selections.
- Try out odds comparison software to find the best value.
- Use responsible bankroll management techniques such as establishing a budget and time limits, setting up a betting unit, and leveraging bonuses and promos.
- Stick with player or team props if you’re new to the online betting game. Avoid season props if you can.
We don’t have the corner market on prop betting guides—check out other voices online to see what they’re saying about prop betting and the best strategies in 2025. Learn as much as you can to make the best-informed betting selections and avoid many common mistakes newcomers make when trying their hand with prop bets. Use the tools, resources, and advice to guide your approach, and remember always to bet responsibly!