One of betting’s ‘silly seasons’ is upon us again as Super Sunday looms.
Yes, it’s Super Bowl prop betting time or, to put it another way, it’s that time of the year when we tend to get drawn in by all the Super Bowl hype and begin placing some crazy prop bets we wouldn’t normally even have a sniff at.
Like betting on the toss of the coin before kick-off and winning or losing on the 50/50 chance it will be heads or tails.
Similar to putting good money on an under/over totals prop bet on how long it will take Motown veteran Gladys Knight to sing the National Anthem before the game.
Like betting on whether or not the commentators will mention the wide age difference between the coaches, 66-year-old Bill Belichick of the Patriots and 34-year-old Sean McVay of the Rams.
Or like betting on whether lead singer Adam Levine will wear a hat when he performs with Maroon 5 during the halftime show.
If it’s a good time you want and you can afford to lose the money you will be wagering on these types of bets, by all means, go for them. Have some fun. There is always the chance you’ll be lucky.
If not, and like a professional sports punter you hate to lose, there are other Super Sunday bets that can be researched and quantified before you put your hands in your pockets.
It doesn’t guarantee you a win of course, but knowing the most likely outcome of the action you are betting on is always better than a coin toss.
If you are going to go for the coin toss, here are some Super Bowl stats you might want to know.
Review
Right now, Tails hold a 27-25 lead over Heads in the 53 Super Bowl games played. Tails were starting to go clear with four straight wins when Heads bounced back at Super Bowl LII last year to bring the odds closer to 50/50 again
Here’s a spanner to throw into the works. NFC champions have won 18 of the past 21 Super Bowl coin tosses but lost it last year when Patriots, the AFC Champions, won it for only the second time in their last eight appearances.
They’ve won the game at five of those appearances, but on the only two occasions, they have won the toss they lost the game.
Can you guess what they’ll be hoping for on Sunday? Which way you bet is, of course, a toss-up.
Moving to the national anthem story, it has been noted that bookies have given an over and under total of around 107 seconds to Knight even though the average length for the song is around of 115 seconds and last year Pink stretched it to over 120 seconds.
An Overs bet might be the answer here, but who knows? You might like to check out Knight singing the national anthem on YouTube and time it.
The age difference bet, however, looks to me to be one of the best in the Super Bowl prop betting market this week.
The 32-year gap between Belichick and McVay is such a salient feature it’s bound to get a mention sometime during a long Sunday.
A yes bet priced at -200 means you’ll have to put down $20 to win $10 but that’s a steal when you see that you’ll be getting an immediate 50% back on your (betting) investment – and that’s way beyond anything you’ll get from your bank.
What Then
A yes bet here is a really good option – but get in early before the odds go through the roof.
Prop bets, even for Super Sunday, are not all weird and wonderful novelty wagers.
FanDuel, like most New Jersey sportsbooks, is running a long list of pretty straight forward match-related Prop bets that might be a good thing for you if have access to some reliable match data.
Topping their list of Prop bets is one that offers odds of -130 on Tom Brady and +100 on Jared Goff for ‘The quarterback to pass most yards’.
You can also get -135 on Brady or +105 on Goff for ‘the quarterback to be sacked first’ and -120 on Stephen Gostkowski and -105 on Greg Zuerlein for’ the kicker who gets most kicking points in the Super Bowl.
If you really want to get into the swing of things in Super Bowl LIII week, you could do yourself a favor by having a good look at some of New Jersey’s nine (maybe 10 if Hard Rock opens in time) online sportsbooks and review the hundreds of prop bets on offer.
You are bound to find some that will give you a good chance of winning some money this weekend – even if the team you back loses.
Meantime, the odds on the winning team on Monday stayed firm; the Patriots remained the bookies’ favorites to win Super Bowl LIII.
The money line odds being offered by FanDuel, for instance, for a win were –132 for the Patriots and +116 for the Rams and by 888sport -139 for the Patriots and +115 for the Rams.
NOTE
It may save you some search time to note that most novelty prop bets that can’t be officially graded in box scores are not allowed to be offered in legal sports betting states like Nevada or New Jersey.
These types of props are only available online from European sportsbooks and many American punters are legally prohibited from betting on them.
