If you enjoy betting on sports related
activities, you’ll understand the fun that can be had when it comes to
proposition bets (also known as “prop bets”). Some very funny and
outrageous prop bets have made it into the world of sports. A little bit
of odd, unconventional fun can go a long way towards bringing happy
smiles to people’s faces. And sometimes they even add to the old bank
account – or take some away. The nature of the prop bet allows those
involved to have fun and not take themselves or the situation seriously,
since this type of fun will not change the outcome of the game, which
is the really important issue, as we all know
.
You don’t have to visit a bookie or go
to the big casinos to place your bets – organize this fun activity among
your friends and get more fun out of the game as you watch on TV!
Super Bowl
Of course the Super Bowl is BIG in America.
In the last few years some outrageous, crazy – even weird prop bets
have been placed from anything relating to Madonna wearing fishnet
stockings to Tom Brady’s son wearing a Tom Brady Jersey during the game.
Or Kelly Clarkson’s bare belly showing during the singing of the
National Anthem during the 2012 competition. The 2013 bets were equally
strange: You could wager on Beyonce being joined by Jay Z during her
half time show, or even what the predominant color of her top would be.
Strange yes – but also true.
Here are some more crazy prop bets for
you: From the 2015 game the following must surely rank right up there
with the most outrageous:
These are so-called ‘calamity’ bets: The
odds of the power going out in the stadium at 44/1; the goal posts
falling down at 33/1 and the odds of a streaker running across the field
at 50/1. Or these: Which coach was going to be mentioned first by name
after the start of the game, and bets concerning Katy Perry’s dress code
at her halftime show – skirt, dress, pants below the knees or shorts
above? Or even her hair color: brunette (odds of Katy being brunette at
1/2, red at 10/1 and blonde at 12/1). You decide which are the funniest,
craziest, most outrageous bets by which bring the quickest smile to
your face.
Prop Bets Aren’t New
The idea of the prop bet is not new or
strange. It is interesting to see that it existed even as far back as
1693 in London. What started out as a coffee house called Mrs. White’s
Chocolate House (named after the man who started it, an Italian by the
name of Francesco Bianco) later simply became known as White’s and
became one of England’s most famous all-male clubs; situated at 37-38
St. James Street since 1755, the club may still be the grandest and most
exclusive gentleman’s club around. Soon after it started, it also
allowed patrons to gamble, and a betting book of some very unusual
proposition bets was kept during the 18th and 19th centuries. One such bet concerned a very rich peer, Lord Alvanley, who bet a friend in the early 19th century
for £3,000 that one raindrop would beat another to the bottom of the
bow window at the front of the club. The betting book does not mention
the outcome; however, in today’s money that wager amounts to almost
£200,000!
Other well-documented prop bets concern
Alvin ‘Titanic’ Thompson (November 30, 1893 – May 19, 1974) who once
wagered his gambling companions on a road trip that a sign that read “20
miles to Joplin, Missouri” was in fact wrong (only after he’d hired a
man to dig up the sign and move it 5 miles closer to Joplin). He
complained about the sign’s inaccuracy, wagered his friends and, of
course, won!
And then there are those proposition bets that started as dares or “exile” bets,
whereby a wager is taken out against a gambler for doing something
quite unfamiliar to his nature. Gamblers like the excitement and
surroundings of casino halls and bright lights, as well as their
independence and freedom; those are the conditions under which they
function best. Also, the casino is where they make their living. So in
the early 1990s a fellow gambler entered into a wager with two-time
World Series of Poker winner John “Johnny World” Hennigan, the bet being
that Hennigan would have to survive 6 weeks in Des Moines, Iowa. Now,
for a man who loves the excitement of Las Vegas and Atlantic City, this
proved too much and he left after 2 days, thereby losing the wager. To
settle the bet, Hennigan accepted that he had lost and actually paid the
other guy a settlement to leave Des Moines early.
Also the Professionals
The idea of the prop bet has been around
for a long, long time as we can see. Because betting is at the heart of
the casino player’s passion, it is not uncommon for gamblers to also
get involved in proposition bets. A good example concerns Phil Hellmuth,
professional poker player and winner of multiple World Series of Poker
Bracelets (14, in fact) and the 1989 WSOP Main Event Champion. Hellmuth
and Huck Seed, himself winner of the WSOP Main Event in 1996, once
entered into an unusual prop bet: Seed had to stay in the ocean for 18
hours straight, but he lasted only 3 hours, thereby handing the wager
and a handsome amount of cash to Hellmuth.
A very confident bet came ahead of the 2014 WSOP season from Daniel Negreanu, one of poker’s all time biggest stars
with 6 WSOP bracelets to his credit, as well as 2 WPT championship
titles. Negreanu invited anyone to bet against either him or Phil Ivey
winning a bracelet at one of the WSOP events of that year. His wager was
simple: an even-money bet with the message “…One of us wins, you lose.”
The minimum bet was $5K. Because betting is such a big part of the life
of the gambler, you can be sure they’re keen to come up with a prop bet
when it concerns their mates and fellow gamblers.
Tennis and Other Sports
Either online or among friends, tennis
prop betting is common and a fun way of creating some excitement. There
are quite a number of possibilities: Who will win which set, who will
win the match, how many aces in the men’s game – a great number of bets
to be considered. Now these may be just ordinary bets, not outrageous
like some of those we find in, for instance, the NFL as we’ve seen. You
will find that bettors get involved too in prop bets for games in the
NBA season. Typical prop bets include first half total, total team
points and total assists.
Even boxing gets its share of funny and
outrageous prop betting. In what was billed as one of the greatest
contests in recent years, the matchup between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao on
May 2, 2015 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas attracted the
following: Would Justin Bieber, the Canadian pop star of “Baby” (his
2010 hit song) fame, be wearing a hat during his walkout with
Mayweather, or would he be wearing sunglasses? Another one was: Would 50
Cent walk out with the boxer?
Outrageous wins the Day
It seems that as long there are
sportsbooks and online prop betting opportunities, the craziest, most
outrageous bets will be placed and gamblers and prop betters will have
fun. That is after all what prop betting is mainly about. A few good
laughs at ourselves, with a bit of craziness in the mix. It is not about
who’s winning the game; it is about supporting the oddest prop bet!
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