Player Prop Betting Rules: What Happens if the Player Doesn’t Get in the Game?

What happens if you bet a prop and that player never sees the court, field, diamond or ice?

Depending on the sportsbook, your bet may or may not stand.

There are three primary ways that books handle this situation:

1. Every sportsbook will cancel your bet if the player is inactive per the league or team's official injury report. That's the case if you bet the over or under.
2. Some books will honor the bet if the player is active, even if he or she doesn't play a single second.
3. Other books require the player to at least appear in the game — whether it's a snap, minute, inning, etc. — for the bet to stand, whether it's an over or under.

A few other things to know:

Differences by sport: Some books treat props differently by sport. FanDuel requires a player to be active per the NFL's injury report for bets to count, but in the NBA, the player must "take the court" for bets to stand.

In sports like MLB and soccer, where you cannot be subbed back in after leaving the game, players must start the game for the props to count.

If it's part of a regular parlay: If your prop is part of a parlay across multiple games, that bet will be dropped but the rest of the parlay will still count, just with a smaller payout.

If it's part of a same game parlay: Most sportsbooks will void your entire same game parlay if one player doesn't play. That's because they bake in the correlation and if one player doesn't play, it changes the likelihood of everything else happening in a game. Whether or not that's fair is a different topic, but this is how most books do it.

DraftKings recently changed its process and will reprice the parlay without that player's prop if the player doesn't get in the game.

College props can be a mess: College props aren't a huge market, but because there are no official injury reports and sometimes inconsistent reporting on snap counts, books have a little more liberty in voiding bets. If you have experience with how different books handle it, let me know on Twitter.

All United States sportsbooks are required to post House Rules, which contain these details, but many of them don't detail every specific scenario.

House rules are easiest to find by simply Googling something like "DraftKings house rules" since they can often be hard to find by navigating the websites themselves.

Each book handles things differently by sport, but here are how a few of the major ones in the U.S. handle NFL player props:

NFL Rules by Sportsbook

1. DraftKings

Rule: Must play one snap

House rule: On any player prop market, player(s) must play at least one snap for bets to have action. If a player is listed as “inactive” or “did not play” for the relevant game, bets on that player/market will be void.

2. FanDuel

Rule: Must be listed as active

House rule: For player prop markets, any bets on a player who is listed as “inactive” on nfl.com will be voided. All other bets will stand.

3. WynnBet

Rule: Must play one snap

House rule: Player proposition wagers: Player must play for Action (unless otherwise stated).

4. BetMGM

Rule: Must be listed active

House rule: For all player props the players must be listed as active by the official league source for bets to have action. Bets will be refunded on wagers where one or both players are listed as inactive.

An exception to this rule is for Quarterback prop markets as these require that the players in question must be starters for bets to have action. Passing yardage props are settled as per gross passing yards.

5. PointsBet

Rule: Must play one snap

House rule: Where a Market awards points based on the performance of a player or group of players in an NFL match, or in markets that are based on aggregate yards featuring passing/rushing/receiving yardage, touchdowns, turnovers, or other events, the player or all players in the group must enter the field of play for Bets to stand, unless otherwise stated.

6. William Hill/Caesars

Rule: Must play one snap

House rule:For player proposition bets to be considered “action”, the following criteria must be met:

• Football – player must play
• Baseball – player must start
• Basketball – player must play
• Hockey – player must play
• Soccer – player must start. Additionally, extra time and penalty kick shootout statistics are not included for proposition wagers.