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Participation Protection is coming soon. Protected NFL markets open in QA first, starting Thursday, October 29, 2026. Ask your Novig contact for QA access.
A protected market is an NFL player prop with one extra rule. If the player records no snap in the third quarter, fourth quarter, or overtime, the market resolves at its pregame fair market price. It doesn’t matter why the player sat out. An injury, an ejection, or a coach’s decision all count. A snap is any play the player is on the field for: any play from scrimmage, or any special-teams play.

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A protected market is a twin of a standard prop

We create each protected market next to a standard player prop. The twin has the same event, the same player, and the same strike. Its marketType is the standard type with _PROTECTED on the end. The two are separate markets, with their own IDs, order books, and prices. An order on one never fills against the other.

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Which market types have a protected twin

Only full-game NFL props on a single player’s offense can be protected. First touchdown scorer, kicking, and defensive props stay standard. Team, first-half, and multi-player markets have no protected twin.

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How a protected market settles

1

The player records a snap after halftime

The market grades like its standard twin.
2

The player already reached the line

The Over wins, even if the player then sits out.
3

Neither is true

The market resolves at its pregame fair market price.
A protected market can take longer to settle than its standard twin. When a market resolves at its fair market price, each outcome’s status is a bare decimal string, like "0.550", not WIN or LOSS. The two outcomes’ prices sum to 1.000, so an Over at "0.550" means the Under is at "0.450". Each contract pays its outcome’s price × full value. See Event lifecycle. One snap in the third quarter is enough. A player who plays one snap and then leaves grades normally. A wide receiver who passes 4.5 receptions in the first quarter and then leaves wins the Over. A running back who leaves in the second quarter and never returns resolves at the pregame price. So does a player who is ejected in the first quarter.

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The contract states the rule

The contract wording repeats the protection rule, like this one for an Over:
Resolves Yes if Patrick Mahomes records 300 or more passing yards in the Kansas City vs Tampa Bay NFL game currently scheduled for Sunday at 1:00 PM ET. Participation Protection
  • If Patrick Mahomes records no snap in the third quarter, fourth quarter or overtime, for any reason, the market resolves to its pregame fair market price, unless Patrick Mahomes has already recorded 300 or more passing yards.
The API doesn’t return this text. An outcome’s name is a display label, not the contract. Build on marketType.

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Find protected markets

Ask the catalog for a protected type:
GET /v3/types/markets lists every protected type once it is live. A protected twin copies the consensus of its standard prop. The protected type is its own market family, so GET /v3/catalog/consensus lists the twin’s main line. To find the twin of a standard prop, match on eventId, the player, strike, and marketType. The twin’s marketType is the standard type with _PROTECTED on the end. Two prop types can share a player and a strike, so marketType is required. GET /v3/catalog/participants lists the market IDs for each player. See Participants.

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Trade a protected market

You trade a protected market on its own order book, like any other market. You can rest or take either side. The Over buys protection. The Under sells it, so makers price that risk into the Under. Trading closes at kickoff. A protected market has no live trading. Until protected markets open in an environment, an order on one returns MARKET_NOT_FOUND.

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Protected legs in a parlay RFQ

A parlay can include protected legs. These rules apply on top of the eligibility rules:
  • Every protected leg is an Over pick.
  • Every protected leg is on a game that hasn’t started.
  • Protection covers the whole parlay or none of it.
  • A parlay can’t hold a protected leg and the standard leg of the same player.
If one leg is protected, every leg that could be protected must be. A leg could be protected when it is an Over pick, before the game, and its line has an open protected twin. We refuse a parlay that breaks a rule, and no RFQ goes out. The requester sees one of these reasons: As a maker, you see a protected leg as an outcome on a protected market. Read its market’s marketType to tell it apart from the standard leg. A protected leg with no snap after halftime settles at its pregame fair market price. Settlement says how such a leg pays out.