Give Yourself Propsby Jim Green |
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Know who's winning tonight? Props can be used to give you much better odds
When you are new to the world of online sportsbooks the experience can be rather overwhelming. For me it was hard enough to figure out how to find my team let alone bet on them.
Of course after spending a bit of time with the software I found my boys and took them to win using the game line; Calgary Flames over the Chicago Blackhawks. It seemed like a smart idea at the time - the odds were decent and it was a simple process that I could repeat the next time I had the urge to bet. I had seen a section called 'Props' that offered more exotic betting options, but I ignored it and stuck to the odds of the game line.
Rookie mistake.
While at first Props appear to be a bit of a joke - allowing you to wager on anything from who will get to a certain number of points first to what the exact final score will be - this is an extremely important feature. I didn't recognize this at the time because I'm just a fan. I don't care how my team wins as long as they win!
Even for a simple-minded fan, the key is to separate the useful props from the useless ones.
Let's say we are talking about NHL hockey. While which team wins the race to 2 goals is a useless prop for someone like myself, picking the exact final score is not. When you make a single bet that your team will win, you are essencially betting that the final score could be anything from 1-0 to 6-5 - or higher. It may seem like a single bet but it isn't. If you stick to your team winning but make 5 to 10 bets (using props) on the most likely final scores, you are, in reality, making fewer bets.
A law in sports betting - or any kind of wagering - is the fewer things you bet on the better your odds will be.
As an average fan I know the Flames are a low-scoring team, so the next time I took them to win I filtered out the 6-5's and other unlikely scores and made my wager through the Props rather than the game line. While it took a few more minutes to place the bet, the payback was set to be significantly better. I also took the game to go to the shootout - a useless Prop defined by this article - just for the fun of it.
Well, we lost - in the shootout.
I came out ahead.Comments on Give Yourself Props |
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