Team props: one side's behaviour, not the result

A team prop settles on something a single team does, independently of who wins. First team to score, team to score in both halves, team to score in every quarter, most points in a period, largest lead. The opponent's result is irrelevant to settlement except where it directly blocks the event.

It exists because a great deal of opinion about a game is about one side only — this offence is fast, this defence concedes early — and there is no way to express that in a spread without also taking a view on the other team. The book derives these from the same game model that produces the spread and total, then adds its own margin to each.

Whether a 'neither' outcome exists depends on the sport and the threshold, and it changes the market from two-way to three-way. Where it cannot happen the market is two-way with no void; where it can and the book has not listed it, there is a stated rule sending it somewhere, usually a refund.

And that is the trap. Team props look independent of the result and mostly are not. 'Scores in both halves' is far likelier for a side that spends the second half in front, and 'scores in every quarter' effectively requires a competitive game. Betting one alongside a side or a total often doubles up on the same game script without looking like it.

What to do with it. Name the game script the prop needs, then check whether anything else on the slip already depends on that same script.