2020 Super Bowl Prop Bets: An Oddsmaker's Perspective

Every year, hundreds of millions flock to television sets to watch the greatest sporting event known to western civilization: The Super Bowl. It's a day that's treated as a holiday in it's own special way, as family and friends gather together to indulge on the last sixty minutes of football for nearly six months.

It's also a day where pennies are won, but mostly lost via gambling.

Placing bets on the big game is almost as American as watching the game in itself, as the Super Bowl garners attention from all walks of life, from football addicts to casual fans. What's easier than betting a single dollar on heads/tails before the game begins?

It turns out, many people follow that line of thinking. Per Betfirm.com, 2019 saw nearly $146 million in wagers at Nevada sportsbooks for the Patriots/Rams contest. Wagers have exceeded $100 million for the last six Super Bowls, with 2013 being the last year where wagers failed to hit the mark ($98.9 million isn't too shabby).

That's only counting legal bets. When factoring in office pools, online/friendly bets and others, estimates reached a shade over $5 billion in 2019 (about 97% of all bets placed on the game are illegal in one context or another, per betfirm).

There's no doubting wagering on the Super Bowl is popular, and with two premier franchises battling for a Lombardi trophy this Sunday, the positive monetary trends are expected to continue. Yahoo! recently reported a wager so big ($550,000) that heavyweight MGM was forced to move the spread down to 1.5 in favor of the Kansas City Chiefs.

While normal bets (spread, moneyline) still reign supreme, the Super Bowl provides the greatest opportunity to make proposition bets, a wager that is made within the event that does not necessarily effect the outcome.

Who would know more about prop bets than Adam Burns, BetOnline.ag's Sportsbook Manager. Burns spared some time during a busy week to discuss the life of an oddsmaker during the Super Bowl while also throwing his two cents in on a few interesting bets available.

Donnie Druin: For oddsmakers, how do you view the Super Bowl? From the outside it appears to be quite fun, but I can also see a lot of stress trying to establish odds that seem enticing yet realistic.

Adam Burns: As fun as it is, the Super Bowl for oddsmakers, is just a bit better than hell. We have well over 500 different ways to wager on it from the game itself, to the coin toss, to the length of the National Anthem, to how many times will they show Mike Shanahan and the list goes on. So you can imagine the process of coming up with these, handicapping them mostly in a non-traditional statistical way then having to watch for all these things before, during and after the game.

After all these years doing it, I am used to it but cannot wait until it is over!

Druin: When it comes to prop bets, why do you believe the general public loves betting on the Super Bowl?

Burns: I believe it is because of the variety of things you can bet on like commercials, halftime show and other fun things aside from the game and people who are at a Super Bowl party and do not really follow the teams can have some fun with it.

Druin: Do you have any favorite prop bets? Any ones that people always seem to hit on?

Burns: National Anthem Length is always a huge hitter along with MVP of the game where you can get some enticing odds on certain players. Also, the quick hitter props like Player to score 1 TD and the ones that you can have settled quick and on to your next bet are extremely popular.

Druin: Give me your opinion on the following :

Heads/Tails of the coin toss

Burns: "For some reason we always seem to need Tails, even though this is a true 50/50 prop with no advantage and the coin toss has gone 28 times Tails and 25 times Heads in Super Bowl history with the winner of the coin toss winning the game 24 times."

Color liquid poured on head coach

Burns: "This you never know, for a while clear or water was on a roll, then it has been pretty random. Right now Yellow/Lime Green and Red/Pink are taking the most money. I guess people think Red has a decent shot since both teams are Red and part of the reason why I put them as one of the favorites at 3-1."

Length of national anthem

Burns: "We opened at 1 minute 56 seconds and quite a bit of money came quickly on the over. I researched this quite a bit, but we did end up moving to now 2 minutes and 1 second and now money is coming in pretty evenly on that."

Will Drake be shown during the broadcast?

Burns: "This is one we have to keep on top of to see if he is even actually going."

Will a linemen catch a touchdown pass?

Burns: "It has happened in the playoffs so we figured why not in the Super Bowl"

Will a fan run on the field?

Burns: "Doubt it, but you never know and if one does we even have who will tackle him player, coach, security, etc."

Will Tom Brady be mentioned?

Burns: "People love betting on these things, but the fact is unless there is some context at the time the likelihood is they will not mention someone who has no tie to the game yet. However, we are taking a ton on yes for this prop."

From fireworks exploding during the national anthem to President Trump tweeting after the game, hundreds of options exist if you're within jurisdictions that allow sports gambling. That's the beauty of the Super Bowl, in the eyes of both oddsmakers and consumers across the land.