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Super Bowl features Vegas favorites Seahawks and Patriots

The Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots headed into the playoffs as the top two favorites to win Super Bowl XLIX, so it’s no surprise to see them headed to Glendale this week. However, NFL bettors certainly could have gotten a lot more value on the NFC champion Seahawks and the AFC champion Patriots to win the Super Bowl at their low points during the regular season.

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Seattle entered the season as the defending Super Bowl champ and the 6/1 second choice to repeat behind the Denver Broncos (11/2), who lost to the Seahawks 43-8 in last year's Super Bowl as two-point favorites. New England was 8/1 going into the season, tied with the San Francisco 49ers as the third choice.

However, the Patriots saw their odds plummet all the way down to 16/1 at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com following a disappointing 2-2 start that had the media questioning whether or not future Hall of Fame quarterback Tom Brady should be benched.

Coincidentally, Seattle and New England were both at their lowest points from a betting perspective after suffering losses to the Kansas City Chiefs. The Patriots were shellacked by the Chiefs 41-14 as 2.5-point road favorites in the Week 4 Monday Night Football matchup while the last loss for the Seahawks took place at Kansas City in Week 11. Seattle fell to the Chiefs 24-20 in that game as a one-point underdog and has won eight in a row since then to go along with a 6-1-1 mark against the spread.

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The Seahawks saw their odds to win the Super Bowl drop from 17/2 to 16/1 following their last setback. Then, after they won their fourth straight game and the Green Bay Packers surprisingly lost to the Buffalo Bills 21-13 as 3.5-point road favorites in Week 15, they reclaimed the top spot in the NFC and jumped back up to 13/4, behind only New England.

The Patriots became Super Bowl favorites at 4/1 following Week 11, when they routed the Indianapolis Colts 42-20 as 3-point road underdogs on Sunday Night Football for their sixth consecutive victory en route to a seven-game winning streak and the Broncos lost to the St. Louis Rams 22-7 as 8-point road favorites.