Prop Bets For Tonight

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In most mainstream betting circles, wagers such as point spreads, moneylines, and totals capture the overwhelming majority of the attention. However, there are plenty of other ways to get in the game.

Prop Betting is one of those ways. In a nutshell, these are side wagers you can make on something that may or may not happen in the confines of a sporting contest. You’ll find props available for team-based situations, as well as ones that revolve around individual player performance.

For many sports, there is less than a 24-hour period from when betting lines are released to when a game starts. Football usually offers a bigger window of time to place wagers, as lines are posted. After a thrilling Superbowl weekend, the thought crossed my mind, why don't other sports offer more prop bets, particularly college basketball's March Madness? There are a lot of similarities. Free NBA tips today. The best free NBA expert tips tonight. NBA picks ATS, Over/Under. Free NBA picks tonight. NBA betting tips & parlays. Compare NFL odds, Betting lines, point spreads and totals from multiple sports books for NFL football games this week. Online Sports Betting has put together a comprehensive preview of Super Bowl Prop Bets. For all the latest information regarding the Super Bowl click here!

For sportsbooks, prop bets are a great way to increase user engagement. For sports bettors, they can make contests all the more interesting, and potentially even more profitable.

We’re going to walk through everything you need to know right here while going through a number of examples. Let’s get started by taking a more detailed look at what they are.

What are Prop Bets?

Prop bets are additional wagering opportunities that are available for each game on the docket. At most sportsbooks, they can be found in the betting lobby by clicking on a link titled something along the lines of ‘more wagers’ which appears in the game listing.

They’re essentially side wagers for things that could happen during the course of a game. Offerings will vary based on sport, but let’s look at a few possibilities for the major team-based pro sports.

  • NFL: First Player to Score a TD
  • NBA: Total Points Scored in 1st Quarter
  • NHL: Highest Scoring Period
  • MLB: Total Runs Scored in 1st Inning

You’ll find prop bets that are related to team performance, as well as wagering opportunities that are tied to individual player output. Those that fall in the latter category have become a popular entry point for those who are transitioning over from fantasy sports to sports betting

Prop bets are incredibly popular for major events such as the Super Bowl, but you’ll be able to find them all year long in your sports of choice. They help to expand the betting menu significantly and open up different possibilities for bettors.

Prop Bet Odds

The format for prop bet odds will differ based on the opportunity that’s listed. There will be some that resemble the odds format you’ll find in game lines, and others that look more like the outright odds in futures markets.

Let’s take a look at an example of each. For starters, here’s a player prop from an upcoming NBA game on the potential points scored for Zion Williamson of the New Orleans Pelicans.

  • Over 20.5 points -108
  • Under 20.5 points -114

As you can see, the odds for the two choices are similar to what you might find in an Over/Under wager on the total points scored for the game. Next, let’s stick with the same game in which the Pelicans are facing the Milwaukee Bucks. Here are the odds on who will score the first basket in the contest.

  • Giannis Antetokounmpo +370
  • Zion Williamson +480
  • Khris Middleton +600
  • Brandon Ingram +650
  • Eric Bledsoe +900

And so on for all of the players expected to play in the game. For prop bets with only two choices, odds listings are similar to what you’ll find in game lines. When there are a number of choices to consider, then the odds are listed like a futures market, such as the winner of the upcoming NBA Finals.

Examples of Prop Bets

Prop bets for tonightProp

You’ll find plenty of different choices for prop bets at major sportsbooks. As always, offerings will vary by operator. You could find an awesome selection for all sports at one book, but another operator may be a little skimpy in some spots.

Let’s walk through some additional examples. This time, let’s switch gears over to the NHL. The Colorado Avalanche will be at the Buffalo Sabres for an upcoming game. Here are the odds for the first goal scorer in the contest.

  • Jake Eichel +600
  • Nathan MacKinnon +750
  • Mikko Rantanen +900
  • Sam Reinhart +1000

You’ll find odds listed for all players scheduled to compete, as well as for a ‘no goals’ selection. Sticking with the same game, here are the odds for total goals scored by the home team.

  • Sabres 2 or Less -120
  • Sabres 3 or 4 +145
  • Sabres 5 or More +550

Last but not least, here are the odds for an individual player prop in the same contest. This one revolves around the total points that Nathan MacKinnon of the Colorado Avalanche will score in the game.

  • Over 1.5 Points +136
  • Under 1.5 Points -182

In short, you’ll find numerous prop betting opportunities available for all of the major sports. There will be team-based and single player props, as well as ones that revolve around just parts of the game, such as the first goal scorer or total number of goals scored in a period.

Prop Bet Odds and Line Movement

When it comes to game lines, it’s pretty simple to track the odds from open until game time. After you see the opening lines, you can keep your eyes out for changes based on things such as market reaction or news that breaks after the odds were unveiled.

In addition, many major operators will remain in range of each other on lines and odds. Those who don’t will stick out like a sore thumb, and line shoppers will typically pounce quickly and generally bring them back in line with the overall market before too long.

For prop bets, this information isn’t quite as easy to track. There’s no centralized location for prop betting odds, and you’ll generally have to click through on each individual game to explore opportunities.

Additionally, offerings will vary by sportsbook. The major prop bets types will be found everywhere, but some operators will have exclusive offerings and/or go the extra mile with offerings that aren’t found everywhere.

All that said, you can still use your general sports betting sense while examining different prop betting opportunities.

For example, you may have a great read on the individual performance of certain players, as well as the matchup they are facing for the game at hand. This can make for a great spot for individual prop bets related to that player.

On the team-based side, you may know that certain teams start off quick and close slow, or vice versa. That’s valuable intel to consider when you are examining opportunities for things such as halves and totals.

How to Handicap Prop Bets

Just like the odds will vary based on the prop bet at hand, so too will the handicapping approach for team-based and individual parlay wagers.

On the team side, you can generally stick to the same types of principles you use when handicapping games themselves. You’ll be looking for things like matchup advantages and recent play, for example.

When it comes to the individual player props, it’s pretty similar to projecting the fantasy performance for individual players in the game. Those who have favorable matchups could outperform expectations and averages, while those with less favorable circumstances could have a challenging game.

In both cases, the odds will be your opening guideline. Props with shorter odds have more likelihood of occurring, so sportsbooks will be willing to pay out a fair price and that’s it. However, that doesn’t mean you should shy away from opportunities with higher odds and less of a probability of happening.

In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Many props revolve around situations that can be tough to predict, such as the first basket in an NBA game or the first goal in an NHL contest.

For those who feel they are solid when it comes to forecasting things such as this, that can open the doors to serious returns, i.e. a lot of bang for the buck. However, that doesn’t mean you should break the bank chasing longshot opportunities.

Instead, approach prop betting with a specific budget in mind, just as you should with single-game wagers. You can take your budget and allocate it out based on confidence level, such as:

  • 80-90% of your prop betting budget on those you feel most confident about.
  • 10-20% on speculative or longshot opportunities.

While prop betting can certainly open the door to additional profit opportunities, it’s important to remain just as disciplined as you are when it comes to single-game wagers. It can be really easy to fall down the rabbit hole, so choose your spots wisely and stick to a plan.

Essential Questions to Ask About Prop Betting

Diving in and throwing money at any prop wager that tickles your fancy is a recipe for disaster. Sure, you may get lucky and have a good night or two by doing it this way, but it’s just not a viable long-term strategy.

When considering prop betting, it can be helpful to think about it in the same fashion as you would approach a monster slate of games.

For example, an average Saturday in the heart of College Football season can include 40+ games. There aren’t that many folks out there who have time to tackle every game on the slate, and probably even fewer who place wagers on every single game on the docket.

Instead, the majority of handicappers will focus on the games that they find most appealing. They won’t necessarily bet on all of them, but this will be the list of contests they’re focusing on to mine for opportunities.

The same approach can be used for prop betting. Let’s consider one of the biggest prop betting days of the year as an example.

For the Super Bowl, sportsbooks go all out on the prop front. It’s not uncommon to see 300+ different opportunities available in some spots.

Naturally, few will have the time – or the bankroll available – to bet on each and every one of these opportunities. Rather than doing that, the best course of action is to go through the list and find those that jump out to you as good opportunities.

While going through the list, you can narrow down the field substantially just by asking yourself a couple of simple questions.

  • Which of these prop opportunities can I reasonably expect to predict with some semblance of accuracy?
  • Are there any longshot opportunities that look like they could be worth exploring further?

After going through the full list and using those questions as a guide, you should be able to get down to a much more manageable group of choices to consider. If you still feel like the list is too big, go through the process again and narrow it down even further.

In a perfect world, you’ll wind up with a manageable list that you feel comfortable with, and you will then go on to place wagers on the ones you feel best about.

You can use this exact same process when it comes time for prop betting on a daily sport such as NBA, NHL, or MLB. Your time may be more limited here, but you can narrow down the choices before you even begin. Ask yourself the following:

Prop Bets For Tonight

  • Which type of prop bets am I strongest at handicapping?
  • What props do I feel the most comfortable making at least an educated guess on?

If you answer those two questions right away, you’ll know which types of props you want to zero in on each night. From there, it’s just a matter of choosing the most appealing options.

The Bottom Line on Prop Betting

Prop bets are basically side bets that open up additional wagering opportunities for games or contests. In a nutshell, the bets revolve around something that may or may not happen during the game.

There are prop bets which are team-based which revolve around instances such as first-half scoring or total margin of victory. There are also props which are based on individual player performance, such as a total number of points scored or yards gained.

How to handicap for prop bets will depend on whether they are team or individual bets. On the team side, normal handicapping rules will suffice. For individual player performances, it can help to approach them in the same fashion as you would for projecting fantasy output.

You’ll typically find a wealth of prop betting opportunities available for each game on the docket. As always, it’s important to be selective with how you’re allocating your hard-earned dollars. In short, be selective with prop bets and only wager on those you feel most comfortable with.

Eric Ramsey

Prop betting seems to be engrained into the very core of our poker culture. Everywhere you look, someone is dressing up like Julius Caesar, sculpting hair into shapes, piercing, tanning, shaving, or tattooing something. All for a buck or a million. Poker author Michael Craig realizes that gamblers tend to fill even their nonpoker time with more gambling. 'If they are home watching TV, they bet sports. If they are driving through the rain, they bet on how long it will take a raindrop to reach the bottom of the car’s window. They want to have gambling in every aspect of their lives.”

At the poker table, prop bets have become part of the game. Everywhere you look, someone is handing over a couple of $100 bills after a buddy (or a complete stranger) correctly guessed the flop color, or threw a water bottle into a trash can from their seat, or stood up and sang, 'I'm a little teapot' in front of everyone, or won an actual coin flop, for that matter. Plenty of players have bet six figures on coin flips. Huck Seed once bet that (at 6'7' tall) he could learn to do a standing backflip in two months. He did it. Seed is a prop-bet fiend, in fact. He bet Phil Hellmuth $50,000 that he could stand in the ocean up to his shoulders for 18 hours straight. He failed. Jon Hennigan once made a six-figure bet that he could move to Des Moines, Iowa, for six weeks. He lasted two days. Joe Sebok, Jeff Madsen, and Gavin Smith had a last-longer bet that involved getting tattoos of the other players' faces — like, permanently. Andrew Robl paid Jay Kwik $40,000 to live in a Bellagio bathroom for 25 days.

Pride and big stacks of cash change hands during these prop bets, and we've got a quick rundown of some of the most memorable.

#5: Phil Ivey; Go Vegetarian for a Million Dollars

High Stakes Poker has spawned some of the most expensive prop bets we've seen on television. In season six, a conversation started at the table with Phil Ivey, Tom 'durrrr' Dwan, Gus Hansen, Daniel Negreanu, and Eli Elezra. Ivey was looking for some action on a bet that he could give up eating all meat for a full year. “I was thinking about doing it for a while, so this is kind of like an added incentive,' he said. Dwan mentioned that he'd be willing to bet 'a bit,' and Ivey tried to pin him down for $5 million. Dwan was thinking more like $500,000, but that wasn't in the ballpark. 'I'll try it for two million,' Ivey shrugged. It was still too much for Dwan.

Eventually, Ivey bottom-lined. 'I'll do it for a million. I can't do it for less than that. I'm going to lose. I know I'm going to lose. I'm going to be begging to settle in, like, 4 days.' Book it. A million dollars to go vegetarian for a year — or $2,740 per day if you're scoring at home.

In an interview a later, Kara Scott talked to both players about the prop. 'I like my side,' Dwan said flatly. 'Steak can be tasty sometimes.'

'Is it something that you could do?' she asked him.

'For a million dollars?' Dwan considered. 'No. Definitely not.' When asked what his number was, Dwan answered, 'Shoot me three or four and I'll start considering.'

Ivey talked about how it's always sweeter to take Dwan's money. “He thinks he’s stealing right now. He thinks I have no shot at doing it… He’ll learn the hard way.” Returning to the tables, Ivey proceeded to foreshadow some of the suspense that would unfold a few months later at the 2010 World Series: 'Let's do some bracelet bets now while we're on it.'

Prop bets for tonight

The result of the vegetarian bet? Twenty days later, Ivey bought out for the friendly fee of $150,000.

You can watch the video of the bet on High Stakes Poker here, starting at the 28:00 mark.

#4: Erick Lindgren; Play Four Rounds of Golf for $340,000

You know how these things start. You're at the bar with a couple of buddies. One of you brings up your plans for a golf weekend. The others start telling stories about how badly you play. Then, you make some ridiculous claim to defend your honor and have to follow through with it. It shows up on Wikipedia a few weeks later.

That's sort of what happened to Erick Lindgren when he got himself involved in a golf bet with Gavin Smith, Chris Bell, and Phil Ivey. During the 2007 WSOP, Lindgren claimed he could play four rounds of golf from the pro tees at the pro-level 'Bear's Best' course in one day, break 100 in every round, and do it while walking and carrying his own clubs. The opposition agreed to his bet for a total of $340,000, on the condition that they could pick the day.

And so, at a very hot 5:45 a.m. day in June, Lindgren set off on the first tee. If the morning was already hot, the afternoon was sweltering. The course is 7,194 yards long from the tips, and walking four rounds would require at least 16 miles of hill climbing and club carrying in the midsummer Las Vegas sun. With two rounds under his belt, the midday heat became a big force against Lindgren, and he experienced symptoms of heat exhaustion and dehydration. He needed to break often, lay down and rest. He'd go on to lose about 15 pounds over the course of the day, but he was on pace with three sub-100 rounds behind him as the day's heat began to peak.

Lindgren had to finish his rounds before sunset, and he was walking up the fairway with an orange glow behind him as the clock approached 8:00 p.m. Just as the last few minutes of sun were running away from him, Lindgren sunk his putt on the 72nd hole to collect the bet, by far his biggest cash of that WSOP.

Check out video footage of the bet from RawVegas.

#3: Ted Forrest; Lose 48 pounds for $2 million

There's some history to this bet. During the 2007 WSOP, Mike Matusow and Ted Forrest got into a discussion about Matusow's weight. Apparently, Mike 'the Mouth' weighed 181 pounds in his high school prime, but he was a beefy 241 at the time of the conversation. Forrest put down $100,000 that said Matusow couldn't get back to that weight before the 2008 WSOP, and Matusow accepted the challenge.

Matusow changed his entire lifestyle, hired a trainer, and got to work. He was still 15 pounds away from his goal with nine days to go, but Matusow starved and jacuzzi'd his way to a narrow win, weighing in at 180.8 pounds.

Fast forward. At the Commerce Casino, on May 5, 2010, Matusow and Justin 'BoostedJ' Smith turned the tables. Forrest, who was formerly quite an athlete, was up to 188 pounds himself after a big dinner, and it was time for some more prop action. Forrest bet $50,000 that he could get his weight below 140 pounds by September 15 of that year, and Matusow and Smith gave him 20:1. Even better, they gave him another 10:1 on $100,000 that he couldn't pull it off before July 15. Forrest was putting up $150,000 for a chance at a very skinny waistline and an obese $2 million paycheck.

The accounts of Forrest's pursuit of his goal as told by Michael Craig are some of the great pieces of recent poker writing. There was a certain good-naturedness about the bet that was astounding given the money involved. Justin had room service deliver huge cakes and steaks to Ted at the poker table. Ted joked that if he lost consciousness cutting weight, he wanted Justin to put his body on a scale. Just as was the case in the reverse bet with Matusow in 2007, Forrest was sweating it right down to the wire.

But Matusow was the one doing most of the sweating. On July 12, he aired his sorrows on Facebook: 'Great deal. Ted Forrest is down to 142.6. Has 3 days to hit 139.9. Should be NP. He hasn’t eaten in 9 days he says. Good bye 2 million.'

Forrest continued to fast for another day, often bypassing sleep in favor of constant motion to burn whatever shards of calories he still had left in his body. On July 13, he stepped onto the stage in the Pavilion at the Rio just after the last Main Event tables had been broken into the Amazon Room on Day 4. There was a scale on the floor and an ESPN camera crew encircling the weigh-in, and the whole world got to see the number on the digital screen: 138.0.

Prop Bets For Tonight

Nba prop bets for tonight

Ted Forrest was ghastly thin, but he was $2 million richer — two days early.

Prop Bets For Tonight's Nfl Game

#2: Ashton Griffin; Run 70 miles in 24 hours for $300,000

Our runner-up is the prop bet that sparked this little article here, and one that has sparked a lot of conversation around the poker table in the last couple of weeks. It all started with a simple challenge, but it ended with a lot of drama and a unique juxtaposition of real life and poker life that exploded through poker forums and social media.

On the morning of Friday, February 4, Ashton Griffin, a 22-year-old poker pro, sat in his Orlando home trying to book an insane bet. Griffin said he could run 70 miles in 24 hours. On the listening end of the phone was Justin 'BoostedJ' Smith, and he and Griffin were trying to hash out a good number. Even with Griffin laying 5:1, Smith wasn't giving any action, and it looked like the bet had stalled. Griffin was pleading for a taker, though, and his roommate Haseeb 'INTERNETPOKERS' Qureshi agreed to put up $70,000 to Griffin's $210,000 to make the bet a go. Those numbers would eventually swell to $285,000 and $855,000, respectively, as Griffin continued to bargain even while the bet was taking place.

On the heels of a long night out, possibly hungover, and definitely working on just a few hours of sleep by all accounts, Griffin quickly threw on a pair of running shorts and jogged to the nearby gym to start the bet. Beginning at 12:30 that afternoon, he was given a span of 24 hours to complete the run. He had to maintain a running speed at all times with anything below that given speed not counting toward his total mileage. He was also free to take as many breaks as he needed. Griffin has a background in cross-country running and wrestling and is incredibly fit according to his friends. Still, 70 miles…

The 24 hours that followed were filled with Power Bars and Gatorade for Griffin, and drama and second-guessing for everyone else involved. Qureshi worried about the physical dangers involved, and Griffin's parents even drove up from Ft. Lauderdale to put an end to it. But Griffin would not be swayed. He ran on and on, only taking short breaks to run home and grab some carbs or a quick stretch. With his body apparently bent to its absolute limit, Griffin finally stepped off the treadmill 23 hours 15 minutes later with 70 miles under his heels and $300,000 in his pockets.

If you're interested in hearing what Ashton Griffin had to say about his million-dollar prop bet, check out the PokerNews Podcast from late last week where he discusses things.

Twitter exploded. Justin Smith had ended up taking some action on Griffin's side in the end, and he was one of the first to break the news: “A very big/insane prop bet just came to conclusion. I booked action on @arfarfhowl to be able to run 70 miles in 24-hour window. Ding we win! He just completed it with 45 minutes to spare… He’s so sick!”

The fallout from that bet has already made several laps around the debate desks with many people taking the position that prop betting can be dangerous and bad for the game of poker. This isn't the place to take a position on either side of that discourse, but you can't argue that Griffin's feat is a remarkable one. Put a few hundred thousand dollars behind it, call it a 'prop bet,' and you've got our number two of all time. For now.

#1: Phil Ivey; Win two bracelets in two years for $5 million

Sure, if we're talking bracelet bets, we could have included Tom Dwan's big array of wagers for the next three years. But they're spread out over many players, and the exact figures are hard to nail down. The personal nature and the staggering sum of this particular prop bet is what puts it at the top of our list. $5 million. Straight up.

Prop Bets For Tonight's Game

As with Dwan, it's difficult to sort out the actual details through all of the inflammatory rumors. In early 2010, Howard Lederer and Phil Ivey made this little $5 million even-money bet that says Ivey can't win two bracelets during the next two years. The terms of the bet also stipulate that if one of the two bracelets comes at the WSOPE, the bet is a push. For a given year, the bookies have Ivey as about a 4:1 dog to win a bracelet, and Ivey puts himself at about 40:1 to win a particular event when he plays. With the math, Ivey should play right around 80 events over the course of the 2010-2011 WSOPs. He needs to score two wins in those 80. If you'll, ahem, recall his double bracelet performance in 2009, he has won three bracelets in the last two years. And Lederer made the bet following that 2009 heater.

What the $5 million bet means for the bankrolls of Ivey and Lederer is not insignificant, but it certainly won't do any severe damage to their means of making a living one way or the other. What it means for the poker fan, however, is rather significant as they continue to turn the enigmatic Ivey into poker's superhero. Perpetuating those sentiments, a recharged and remotivated Ivey wasted no time getting back to work chasing bracelets. He paced himself with two early cashes in the 2010 WSOP, then narrowly missed a final table with a 12th-place finish in the $2,500 PLH/PLO event. Then, on June 19, 37 events into the series, Ivey broke through and and snagged bracelet number one with a victory in the $3,000 H.O.R.S.E. event. How much was first place? 'I have no idea,' Ivey admitted to the cameras. Somewhere, Howard Lederer poured himself a tall shot of whiskey.

Nba Player Prop Bets For Tonight

Ivey's bracelet chase then took him to London in September to try to guarantee himself a freeroll with another bracelet at the WSOPE. Ivey cashed in the High Roller Heads-Up event, but Gus Hansensent him away in the Round of 16 on the way to claiming his own first bracelet. There was still the Main Event left, however, and four days into it, Ivey was still in contention. His final day was a short one, however, and he exited in 19th place, hedging his prop bet by a paltry £26,400. Close but no cigar.

The best part of this high-stakes prop bet is that it's only half over. At the midway point of their $5 million gamble, Ivey is on pace to win. Apart from the Lederer bet, rumor has it that Ivey has several more millions in action with other players, and we'd probably all be a bit shocked by the actual numbers involved. As soon as the money bubble bursts in a WSOP event, everyone suddenly wants to know whether or not Ivey has chips. Heaven help us when he makes his first final table of the 2011 summer. And you know there will be at least two or three late nights inside the Rio where all those guys will have to stand together in a dim corner sweating Ivey as he plods along deeper and deeper into some $1,500 donkament. It's $200,000 to first. Plus $5 million.

We don't know how this will all shake out, but we do know enough not to break the Cardinal Rule of poker. You don't bet against Ivey.

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    Top FiveAndrew RoblAshton GriffinErick LindgrenHoward LedererJoe SebokMike MatusowPhil HellmuthPhil IveyTed ForrestTom DwanHigh Stakes Poker

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    Phil IveyPhil HellmuthErick LindgrenMike MatusowHoward LedererJoe Sebok