There’s nothing complicated about a prop bet (which is short for a proposition bet). You’ve probably made a prop bet without actually knowing it – it goes something like this: One person says to another “I bet $10 that you can’t climb that tree” and when person B climbs the specific tree, person A has to pay over $10.
In the sports-betting arena, a prop bet would be something such as “Which team will score first?”. These types of bets are usually not affected by the outcome of the game. As with our example in the previous sentence, seeing which team scores first won’t necessarily predict the team who will win at the end of the day.
Types Of Prop Bets
There are two types of prop bets in sports betting:
- Fun Prop Bets
- Skilled Prop Bets
A fun prop bet will be around something that is related to a particular game but doesn’t affect the outcome. To use a Super Bowl example, an instance of a prop bet would be if the coin toss comes up as heads or tails.
A skilled prop bet is where you bet on the technical aspects of the game that the players are required to exercise skill in order to carry out. For example, if – in a football match – you bet that a player will score more than two touchdowns, but he actually scores three, you’ll win the bet. It doesn’t matter if the team that he plays for wins the game.
Why Is The Difference Important?
Fun prop bets are just that – they’re for fun. If you just want to enjoy yourself while watching the game, then wagering on a couple of fun prop bets will do the trick! However, if you want to make some serious money with your prop bets, then you need to choose those which require some skill to predict.
This is because the outcome of a fun prop bet is solely left to chance – there’s no way of predicting, for example, whether a coin toss will turn out to be heads or tails. This means that it’s far more difficult to predict the outcome – you could either win big or lose big. However, it is easier to predict the outcome of a skilled prop bet as the outcome depends on the skill of the player.
How Are Prop Bets Paid Out?
For prop bets that have an over or under line, it is common practice for them to pay out at -110. So, for example, if you bet that a player will score over or under 1.5 touchdowns, each side will payout at -110 so if you bet $100 your profit will be $90.91.
Prop bets are great because they allow you a great amount of flexibility with your betting. In other words, you’re not just betting on the outcome of a particular match – you’re able to bet on so many other aspects (and use skill to do so) which increases your chances of walking away with a profit!
