Legal Books Makes Large Profits on Super Bowl Sunday
Once Again, Vegas Wins.
There is no other event in the country that gets as much sports betting action as the Super Bowl. Whether it is square pools or bets on what color the Gatorade will be, the general public has a taste to bet on everything on Super Sunday.
While the numbers on how much money wagered on the Super Bowl is not yet official, almost 500 million dollars were wagered through legal books a year ago. With that said, sports betting doubled in 2021, according to fortune.com. Eleven states have legalized sports betting in the past year, so Super Bowl betting is expected to skyrocket this time around.
While legal books consistently make money on the variety of prop bets offered, it profited most this year on its most popular bets: moneyline and spread. 74% of the money was on Rams -4.5, while 83% of the money on moneyline bets was on Bengals.
The Public Loses Again
Of course, since the Rams won 23-20, Las Vegas and legal books profited on both bets. This would mark the second year in a row that the public lost, as a year ago the Chiefs were the team with the public backing.
It seemed as if the public would cash on their moneyline bets for the duration of the second half, as the Bengals took the lead on the first play of the third quarter. Cincinnati held onto that lead for the majority of the game, even having a 20-16 lead at the two-minute warning.
However, thanks to late-game heroics by Matthew Stafford and Cooper Kupp, the Los Angeles Rams put together a game-winning drive which ended with Kupp scoring a touchdown with less than a minute and a half remaining.
High Rollers Bet On Super Bowl
There were multiple million-dollar bets made on the Super Bowl, most notably the five million dollar bet “Mattress Mack” made on Bengals moneyline, with the potential to make eight and a half million. This of course lost, but he was not alone in losing a big bet. The five highest spread bets placed were all on rams -4.5.
Besides Las Vegas, it seemed the biggest winner on Super Bowl Sunday was Marco Piemonte. Known as “Parlay Marco” on Instagram, Piemonte has cashed yet another million-dollar parlay which ended in Rams moneyline.
Along with the parlay, Marco placed a +850 future on the Los Angeles Rams to win the Super Bowl back in October. His winnings have become stuff of legend on social media and even got congratulated by rapper Drake after his recent wins.
As mentioned before, there are a variety of bets one can make on Super Bowl Sunday that may not affect the game directly, but still provides an extra layer to all the entertainment that comes with the Super Bowl. While these bets are fun, sportsbooks have the upper hand in these bets as well.
Besides Gatorade color, some of the most popular Super Bowl prop bets included the coin flip, the length of the national anthem, and a slew of bets on the halftime show. Some of these include whether Snoop Dogg would smoke on stage and whether the performance would include over or under 9.5 songs.
This season is yet another reminder that there is a reason why sportsbooks make so much money. No matter how much the general public thinks they know about any specific game, the house is always at an advantage. So before you bet the “most obvious pick ever” in next year’s Super Bowl, remember who always seems to profit from these sports events.
