gambling Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of value ("the stakes") on a random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy are discounted. Gambling thus requires three el ...

, a "proposition bet" (prop bet, prop, novelty, or a side bet) is a bet made regarding the occurrence or non-occurrence during a game (usually a gambling game) of an event not directly affecting the game's final outcome. Proposition bets in sports are differentiated from the general bets for or against a particular team or regarding the total number of points scored. Traditionally, proposition bets can be made on outcomes such as the number of strikeouts a

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

will accumulate in a

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

game, whether a non- offensive player will score in an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

game, which team will score the first points of the game, the discipline record of teams in a match, the timing of certain events, the number of specific events per team or in the entire match, realistically any statistically discrete event contained in a match or game could be bet on. Fixing part of a match for a certain result in a proposition bet is called

spot-fixing Spot-fixing is illegal activity in a sport in which a specific aspect of a game, unrelated to the final result but upon which a betting market exists, is fixed in an attempt to ensure a certain result in a proposition bet. Examples include somet ...

Examples

There are a wide range of events or outcomes commonly bet on, including: :*Which specific sub-outcomes occur during a game in which multiple sub-outcomes normally have the same value, for example: :*The number of balls/strikes thrown by a baseball pitcher :*Which team scores first in a match :*The specific face value of one or more individual dice in

craps Craps is a dice game in which players bet on the outcomes of the roll of a pair of dice. Players can wager money against each other (playing "street craps") or against a bank ("casino craps"). Because it requires little equipment, "street ...

:*Which cards will make up the

flop In computing, floating point operations per second (FLOPS, flops or flop/s) is a measure of computer performance, useful in fields of scientific computations that require floating-point calculations. For such cases, it is a more accurate meas ...

in a hand of poker :*Which cards are dealt in blackjack :*Specific aspects of the pageantry surrounding a sporting event Some jurisdictions do not allow casinos to offer any type of non-sport related proposition bets, but these kinds of prop bets can often be found online.

Dare for money

Less commonly, "proposition bet" (in this context also "one-of-a-kind bet") denotes a dare for money. The bet is on whether the "dared" person will make a given event happen. If the "dared" person accepts the bet, they will collect if they succeed or pay if they fail. For an example detailed in the book ''

The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King ''The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King: Inside the Richest Poker Game of All Time'' is a 2005 book by Michael Craig detailing billionaire Andrew Beal's series of high-stakes poker games with Las Vegas' top professional poker players. ...

'',

David Grey David F. Grey is an American professional poker player from Henderson, Nevada. Grey is best known as a cash-game player, but he also has several notable poker tournament wins to his name. He has won two bracelets at the World Series of Poker, ...

once bet

Howard Lederer Howard Henry Lederer (born October 30, 1964) is an American professional poker player. He has won two World Series of Poker bracelets and holds two World Poker Tour titles. Lederer has also contributed to several books on poker strategy and has ...

, a professional poker player who became

vegetarian Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter. Vegetariani ...

following

gastric bypass surgery Gastric bypass surgery refers to a technique in which the stomach is divided into a small upper pouch and a much larger lower "remnant" pouch and then the small intestine is rearranged to connect to both. Surgeons have developed several differ ...

, $10,000 for Lederer to eat an offered

cheeseburger A cheeseburger is a hamburger topped with cheese. Traditionally, the slice of cheese is placed on top of the meat patty. The cheese is usually added to the cooking hamburger patty shortly before serving, which allows the cheese to melt. Chees ...

. Lederer accepted the wager, ate the cheeseburger, and won the bet.

Spot fixing

Spot-fixing Spot-fixing is illegal activity in a sport in which a specific aspect of a game, unrelated to the final result but upon which a betting market exists, is fixed in an attempt to ensure a certain result in a proposition bet. Examples include somet ...

is an illegal activity where a person involved in the game takes steps to ensure a certain result for a proposition bet. Instead of fixing an entire match, or shaving points, spot fixing can be done with as little as one player, and can involve ensuring a certain outcome on only a single play, and may be completely unrelated to the points/results in a game. Examples include Matt Le Tissier attempting to fix the time of a throw-in by kicking it out immediately after the game started, or Ryan Tandy attempting to fix the first point scored method in a

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 11 ...

game, failing after the opposition decided against kicking a penalty goal and instead scored a try. Multiple

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

players on teams at all levels of the sport have also attempted to fix events, such as the number of wides or

no-ball In cricket, a no-ball is a type of illegal delivery to a batter (the other type being a wide). It is also a type of extra, being the run awarded to the batting team as a consequence of the illegal delivery. For most cricket games, especially ...

s in an over or the number of runs scored. The fact that these minor events often contribute a minor or non-existent impact on the score or result of a game makes recruiting players for spot fixing an easier attraction than attempting to fix an entire match that may consist of dozens of players.

References

External links

Article detailing several prop bets
{{Use dmy dates, date=July 2018 Wagering