You know what bores me to tears? Traditional sports betting. Moneyline, point spread, total. Just typing those words makes me yawn.
I bet sides maybe 10 times a year, and only when I have an absolutely unshakeable conviction.
Why? First, these lines are essentially coin flips, hammered into submission by the pros.
Second, I’m no pro — I’m not running proprietary algorithms to spot that the Cowboys should be 4.29-point underdogs instead of 4.5.
And third – which definitely marks me as a square – I’m not even interested in doubling my money. No, I prefer to string together a few player props and watch my money vanish that way, like a true American, chasing that lottery dream.
Why People Love Betting Player Props
For me — and I suspect many others — this preference stems from entering modern sports betting through DFS.
Though, to be clear, my betting history goes way back: I was losing football bets to my buddy Matt in earth science class at Parsippany High School in 1986. This memory’s seared into my brain, probably because I lost so consistently.
By junior year, I briefly became the school bookie, taking action from an expanding web of friends, their brothers, and their friends’ brothers. That venture lasted a few weeks before I shut it down, realizing I was spectacularly unequipped for the job in every conceivable way. (Story for another day.)
So yes, I got my introduction to sports betting early. But I drifted away from it, finding my entertainment elsewhere — in booze, weed, and women. (I batted .667 in those pursuits, you guess which ones.)
By 18, I was largely checked out of sports, keeping up with just enough NFL to manage my fantasy football teams. Then 2014 hits: Matt — yes, same guy — calls me about this new thing called daily fantasy football.
I dismissed it as a scam … for a day or two. Then I threw together a FanDuel lineup that weekend, and haven’t looked back since. DFS rekindled my love for baseball, basketball, and every other sport on the menu. (Well, rekindled my love for gambling.)
So when legal sports betting arrived in New Jersey in 2018, is it any surprise my first bets were all props? DFS had perfectly primed me for prop betting.
After all, when you’ve spent years obsessing over player performance metrics in DFS, prop betting feels like home. You’re already analyzing whether Tyreek Hill is going over/under 89.5 receiving yards, or if Saquon Barkley will score a touchdown. The leap from DFS to props is more like a small step.
And here’s the thing: Prop betting scratches that same itch that made DFS so fun. It’s not just about winning or losing — it’s about being right about how the game will unfold. There’s something deeply satisfying about calling your shot on specific player performances.
Sure, maybe the sharps are laughing at me as they grind out their 2% edges on sides and totals. But I’ll take my crazy prop parlays any day. At least when I lose, I lose doing something I enjoy.
And heck, sometimes those parlays even hit. Though probably about as often as Matt got a passing grade on his earth science tests.
