What happens if you bet a player prop at a sportsbook like DraftKings or FanDuel 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 rules to know about voided props:
- 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.
- Most 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. Some books used to just require the player to be active, per the league's injury report.
- The same rules apply for an injury — if the player is injured during the game, the bets will stand. If they're injured pregame and never play, it will be voided.
A few other things to know:
Differences by sport
Some books treat props differently by sport. At FanDuel and DraftKings, your MLB prop will stand if the player gets a single plate appearance. At BetMGM for MLB, the player must start.
Most books we track require NFL players to play at least one snap for the bets to have action. BetMGM has a unique quirk for quarterbacks; they must start or the bets will be void.
If it's part of a regular parlay…
If your prop is part of a parlay across multiple games, that bet will be removed but the rest of the parlay will still count, just with a smaller payout.
So if you parlay three props that come out to +600 and two win and one pushes, your parlay will just become two legs at about +260.
If it's part of a same game parlay…
Some 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. The math is complicated and dynamic, and sportsbooks either don't feel confident in their ability to reprice accurately or want to use it as an excuse to void parlays.
Whether or not that's fair is a different topic, but this is how many 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. ESPN BET will void the entire thing.
College props can be a mess…
College props aren't a huge market (and they're legal in only a few states). 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.
That means if a player plays but doesn't appear on the stat sheet, your bet may be void (which could be good if you bet an over, but bad if you bet the under).
Rules by Sportsbook
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.
Some books used to require players to be active per the NFL's injury report, but now they mostly say they must play one snap.
| Sportsbook | NFL Rules |
|---|---|
| DraftKings | Must play |
| FanDuel | Must play |
| WynnBet | Must play |
| BetMGM | Must play |
| ESPN BET | Must play |
| Caesars | Must play |
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 play one snap
House rule:For player prop markets, only when a player does not play a snap in that game are the selections 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 play one snap
House rule: For all player props, unless stated otherwise, the player(s) must play at least one snap for bets to have action. Wagers will be cancelled where player(s) are listed as inactive. For Quarterback markets only, the player(s) must start the game for bets to have action. Passing yardage props are settled as per gross passing yards
5. ESPN BET
Rule: Must play one snap
House rule: Offers referring to individual player performances' in a single match (example: Total Passing Yards Thrown by Player X) or confronting performances from 2 individual players during the course of a match (example: Which of Player X or Player Y will throw most Passing Yards), require all listed individuals to participate in at least one more play in the match, after bet acceptance for bets to stand.
6. 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.
