Prop Betting Guide: Player, Team and Game Props Explained
A prop bet is a wager on something inside a game rather than its final result: a player’s yards, a team’s first-half points, whether a game has a safety. You win or lose the prop on that one number, whoever wins the game, and it is priced and read exactly like any other bet.
The three kinds of prop
- Player props: one player’s number in one game, such as passing yards, rebounds, strikeouts or shots on goal, usually as an over or under
- Team props: one team’s number, such as total points, first-half points or which team scores first
- Game props: something about the game as a whole, such as whether it goes to overtime or which quarter has the most points
Most books also post exotic or novelty props around the biggest events, and those are the markets furthest from the game itself. The next big prop board of the NFL season is Super Bowl LXI, on February 14, 2027, at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California; the NFL’s calendar has the conference championship games on January 31. Our Super Bowl prop bets page follows that board.
Reading prop odds
A prop over or under at -110 each way is priced so that you risk 110 to win 100. That price implies a 52.4% chance, and with both sides at -110 the two add up to 104.8%. The extra 4.8% is the book’s margin, and it is why a -110 prop needs you to be right 52.4% of the time just to break even.
| Price | You risk | To win | Implied chance |
|---|---|---|---|
| -130 | 130 | 100 | 56.5% |
| -110 | 110 | 100 | 52.4% |
| +100 | 100 | 100 | 50.0% |
| +150 | 100 | 150 | 40.0% |
| +400 | 100 | 400 | 20.0% |
Many prop lines end in a half point, 4.5 receptions or 245.5 yards, so that the bet cannot tie. A whole-number line, 5 receptions, can push, and a push returns your stake. Decimal and fractional odds say the same thing in another form, and our guide to how betting odds work converts all three.
How to find a better prop
A player prop rests on one player, so news about that player moves it: a starter ruled out, a change in the weather or a new role in the offense.
- Shop the line. One book’s 4.5 receptions is another’s 5.5, and the half point decides the bet. Our sportsbook reviews show where to compare.
- Read the game total. A player’s yards and a team’s points both depend on how much scoring the book expects, so a prop that disagrees with the total is worth a second look.
- Check the settlement rule. Each book has its own rule for a player who does not play or leaves early, and it can differ by sport. Read it before you bet.
- Treat novelty props as entertainment. A coin toss is 50-50 by definition, so any price shorter than +100 on it is a bet against the margin.
To see which handicappers are winning on the current slate, check the live leaderboard. For picks from paid handicappers, see our buy picks page.
Props by sport
- NFL: the deepest prop market, with passing, rushing and receiving yards, touchdown scorers and kicking props every week. Our NFL props guide and NFL player props guide go further, and best NFL player prop bets covers the week.
- NBA: points, rebounds, assists and combinations of them, with quarter and half props on most games.
- MLB: strikeouts, hits, total bases and home runs, and first-five-innings markets that depend on the starting pitchers.
- NHL: shots on goal, points and saves, and goal-scorer props.
- UFC and boxing: method of victory and the round a fight ends in.
Props are one market among several. Our guides to the moneyline, alternate total points and live betting cover the rest, and every game we predict is on the NFL and NBA hubs.