The NFL Super Bowl is the most wagered event of the year in any sport. Seconds after the AFC and NFC Champions are crowned, NFL lines for the big game are released and experts spend the next two weeks discussing who will win, who will cover the spread, and why they will do so.
One of the big reasons why Super Bowl betting is so popular is because of the various types of wagers that can be made on the game. Many involve luck, most require at least some research, and all are an exciting way to make a great event even that much better.
Here are some of the most popular types of wagers people are making on the Super Bowl.
Betting on the Game
There’s no more rewarding feeling than predicting the winner of the Super Bowl and whether or not they will cover the point spread. It’s the last football game of the season, and winning is a great way to build momentum until the NFL starts back up again in September.
You can wager on just the winner of the game, which pays out even better if the underdog ends up hoisting the Lombardi Trophy. The most popular wager on the game itself is on-the-point spread. That can be agonizing too though because if you take the Rams -4 points, for example, the Rams winning 27-24 means you got the winner right but it’s still a losing bet.
Wagering on the Point Total
People want an exciting Super Bowl, and for a majority of fans that means one that is high scoring with a lot of offense from both teams. Betting on the total is a wager on how many points both of the teams will combine to score.
One of the reasons why bettors like to take the ‘over’ points total isn’t just because they root for an exciting game, it’s also due to an ‘over’ bet technically not being a loss until the final second ticks off the clock.
If you bet ‘over’ 36 and it’s 28-28 at halftime then you’ve lost, but ‘over’ bettors still think they have a chance even when the score is 3-0 halfway through the 4th quarter.
Coin Toss
The sports nerds at your Super Bowl party will spit out facts and trends as to why Team A is going to cover the point spread or why the defenses are going to step up and the ‘under’ will hit on the betting total.
Taking either ‘heads’ or ‘tails’ takes all the thinking out of the equation and let’s lady luck dictate if you’re up money even before the game starts or already playing catch up.
First Player to Score
There’s always a lot of tension building up to the first score of the Super Bowl which makes the prop bet of ‘player to have the first Touchdown’ even that much more exciting. Since you not only have to get the team to score first correctly but also the individual player, these odds can have some pretty nice payouts if they hit. A spin-off of this prop bet is ‘anytime TD scorer’ which has a little bit lower odds but also can get paid out if a player tallies a TD any time during the game.
Betting on the MVP
The Super Bowl MVP goes on a pedestal for the rest of time, and in this game literally, anybody can be named most valuable. Sure that is most often a quarterback and they do have the lowest odds, but there have been some pretty profitable surprises such as WR Julian Edelman in LIII, LB Von Miller in SB50, and LB Malcolm Smith in XLVIII.
There are a number of other exotic bets available over literally hundreds of different wagers for the Super Bowl. Some of those include the length of the national anthem, what the first song of the halftime show will be, will a kicker hit a crossbar, the first commercial, who will the MVP thank first, and what color is the Gatorade dumped on the winning coach. What a game!
