Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians holds up the Vince Lombardi trophy after defeating the Kansas City Chiefs in the NFL Super Bowl 55 football game Sunday, Feb. 7, 2021, in Tampa, Fla. The Buccaneers defeated the Chiefs 31-9 to win the Super Bowl. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
When the NFL regular season is officially over, it means the biggest sports betting event on planet Earth has arrived. There is a laundry list of bets you can make every year. The Super Bowl and betting are synonymous with one another. They go hand in hand like a Tim Horton’s coffee in a cold hockey arena. The Super Bowl offers ample of wagering opportunities for bettors of all levels. From beginners to experts, everyone loves a good old fashioned Super Bowl bet.
What’s better than watching the top two teams in professional football face off for ultimate supremacy, all while stuffing your face with every appetizer imaginable, and winning money while you’re at it? We not only explain how to bet on the Super Bowl, but provide handicapping information and tips, so that you can make educated wagers on everything from the coin toss to which team covers the spread.
Online sportsbooks such as Bodog release Super Bowl betting lines as soon as the two teams are determined. We break down Super Bowl betting odds below, with a detailed description of each betting option so you can make the smartest Super Bowl betting picks possible.
If you’re looking to make a simple, straight-up bet on the winner of the Super Bowl, the moneyline is your kind of wager. Moneyline betting is one of the most popular bet types in football. All you need to do is pick which team will win the Big Game. Online sportsbooks will list odds that look something along the lines of this:
In this case, Patrick Mahomes and his Chiefs are the favorites and Aaron Rodgers’ Packers are the underdogs. Betting favorites are always represented with a minus sign (-), and underdogs are indicated by a plus sign (+). You’ll see this across all betting sites online, regardless of whether you reside in Canada, the United States or other parts of the world.
Let’s say you wanted to wager on the hypothetical Super Bowl matchup above. You would have to wager $125 on KC in order to win $100. Pending they win it all of course. Or you could bet $100 on the Cheeseheads in order to win $115. That’s if the Pack can pull off the upset that is.
The payout is bigger when you wager on the underdog. But, don’t just bet on a weaker team because you have high hopes of cashing in huge. Upsets happen in Super Bowl betting, however without appropriate handicapping, you could wind up on the wrong side of a losing wager, and we wouldn’t want that to happen.
A step up from the moneyline bet, point spreads are wagers where you bet on how much a team will win by. Point spread wagers would have odds that appear like:
In order to cover the spread, Josh Allen and the Bills would have to win by three (3) points or more. For the Saints to cover, they would have to win outright or lose by no more than two (2) points. Point spreads are typically in multiples of three (3) or seven (7).
Field goals are worth three (3) points and touchdowns are worth six (6) points plus the point after (1), which totals seven (7) points altogether. You can, however, see point spreads on Super Bowl betting as low as one (1) or as high as 14 depending on the two teams playing.
A totals wager is a bet on the combined score by both teams. If oddsmakers predict a total score of 39.5, you can take the OVER or UNDER. If you believe the total combined score will be 39 points or less, you would wager on the UNDER. But if you think the total combined score will be 40 points or more, you would wager on the OVER.
The OVER/UNDER in Super Bowl betting won’t always have a decimal (.5) number. If oddsmakers set the total score at 39 points, and the total combined score hits exactly on 39 points, then that is a PUSH and your money is refunded.
Super Bowl prop bets are wagers on team and player milestones that may not directly correlate to the final result of the game. Super Bowl Sunday presents props like no other. The wild world of sports betting mixed with entertainment lends to endless prop possibilities, with prop wagers ranging from rushing yards and receptions, to touchdowns, and who will win Super Bowl MVP.
Super Bowl props also include non-game action like the length of the National Anthem. You can wager on which color of Gatorade will be poured over the winning head coach, and if the opening coin toss will be heads or tails. There’s also Super Bowl prop odds on the Halftime Show, such as how many songs will be played, and what outfit will the artist be wearing.
Super Bowl parlays are multiple wagers on a single betting slip. For example, you could take the UNDER and tack on a couple of other props on top of that as well. But in order for you to win your parlay wager, each separate bet has to hit. If even one wager loses, your entire bet slip loses. It’s win them all or lose everything.
Parlay bets don’t just have to be Super Bowl wagers though. You can include other sports on your slip depending on what sporting events are available during the same time as the Super Bowl. Most sportsbooks will permit parlays of up to 10 bets.
Live Super Bowl betting lets you wager while the Big Game is going on. Betting odds are updated in real time prior to each drive, so you can wager on whether it will end in a touchdown, field goal, interception or turnover on downs. In-play odds disappear fast. If there’s a line that catches your eye, pounce on it like a defensive tackle would taking down Tom Brady.
Did you know that while the Super Bowl is being played, you can also place futures bets on the following season’s Super Bowl? It’s true. You can make a futures wager on which team you believe will win next year’s Super Bowl. With Super Bowl futures betting, your money will be tied up for roughly another 12 months, and you obviously won’t know if you won your wager until a champion has been crowned the following February.
Super Bowl betting requires you to do a little bit of research, just as you would when wagering on any other minor or major sports event. By checking out the consensus, you can see Super Bowl public betting percentages. But you don’t need to always wager with the public. You can go against the grain and fade the public if you feel firm enough with your reasoning. And stay on top of any line moves in case oddsmakers adjust the odds before kickoff.
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