The championship game of American Football–the Super Bowl–takes place next Sunday and there’s no shortage of ways to bet the game. The San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Ravens will meet in Super Bowl XLVII in New Orleans, Louisiana with the 49ers a -3′ point favorite and the total set at 48. For the serious NFL betting enthusiast, however, that’s only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to betting options on the event.
The annual Super Bowl is the largest single betting event in the United States and one of the biggest in the world–it’s second only to the Champions League final in worldwide betting handle. Long ago bookmakers decided it was good business to go beyond the basic ‘side and total’ betting options and offer a myriad of proposition bets covering every aspect of the game including the halftime show, pregame show and TV ratings.
Sports books are offering proposition bets on the Super Bowl MVP–San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick is a +150 favorite with his Ravens’ counterpart Joe Flacco a second choice at +275–and even who the eventual MVP will thank first in his postgame interview (God or any other religious figure is a +175 favorite). Some prop bets are statistically based and involve the number of first downs, touchdowns, yards, sacks, tackles and any other performance metric imaginable. Additionally, you can bet on things like the first player to score a touchdown–overall or for each team.
In the past sports books have posted lines on the length of the national anthem, the TV rating of the game, the half time performances (which is unlikely to happen this year since featured performer Beyonce has already released her set list) and even how many times team owners and other celebrities will be shown on the television broadcast. Some of these prop bets sound silly–and some definitely are–but that doesn’t mean that it’s not possible to handicap and find good betting value on even the most superficially absurd wager.
These are just a small sample of the wide variety of Super Bowl gambling options that will be available. Look for even more props to be released in the days heading up to the big game.
