A player prop is a bet on one player's game rather than on the result: how far a quarterback throws, whether a receiver scores. Prop markets are smaller than sides and totals, take less money and can move a lot on news.
The markets Unitley covers
- Passing yards (
player_pass_yds): over or under a quarterback's line. - Rushing yards (
player_rush_yds): over or under, usually for running backs and running quarterbacks. - Receiving yards (
player_reception_yds): over or under, for receivers, tight ends and backs. - Anytime touchdown (
player_anytime_td): a yes bet that the player scores a touchdown at any point in the game, usually offered only at a plus price.
What drives a prop
- Playing time and role: how many snaps, targets or carries the player gets. A change in role, such as an injury above the player on the depth chart, matters more than anything else.
- Game script: a team that falls behind throws more; one that leads runs more. The spread and total say a lot about how a game is expected to go.
- Opponent: some defenses are much harder to pass or run against than others.
- Weather: strong wind cuts passing yards and can push teams to run (see the weather guide).
- Injuries: a player listed as Questionable may play fewer snaps, or none.
Reading the price
- Yardage props are usually close to even money on each side, so the line is the main number. Compare your projection with the line, not just with last week's total.
- Yardage is lopsided: a player can go far over the line but only so far under. So the median outcome is often below the average, and an over can lose more often than its average suggests.
- Anytime touchdown props are priced one way only, so the vig is harder to see. Compare the price with your own chance, and with other books' prices, rather than looking for the other side.
Correlation
Props on the same game are often linked: a quarterback's passing yards go with the receivers' yards and the team's points. Combining them in a parlay makes a correlated bet whose combined chance is not the product of the legs' chances (see the parlays guide).
In Unitley
get_player_props gives one game's props, each with its best price across books, the no-vig consensus and EV. Unitley refreshes a game's props on request in the 24 hours before kickoff, from a limited odds quota shared by every user; when it cannot refresh them, the props already on file come back with their age.
Names set like this are Unitley’s tools: what your AI agent, or the analyst in the web app, calls to get these numbers. See the docs