B.C. bettors going Gaga over Super Bowl props
Odds are Lady Gaga will change outfits more that once during her halftime performance at Sunday’s Super Bowl.
Will she call out U.S. President Donald Trump in her between-song patter? Even money on that bet.
As football fans bet on the game’s outcome between the New England Patriots and Atlanta Falcons, nonsports types can put on their poker faces to make calls on 11 “novelty bets” being offered at the B.C. Lottery corporation’s playnow.com site.
Five of those bets have to do with singer Lady Gaga and it’s no wonder. The game is the most-watched television program in the U.S., with the halftime show the most-watched 12 minutes of entertainment on TV.
The singer, a vocal Trump critic, was picked in September to play the halftime spot at Houston’s NRG Stadium, when November’s election was still an open question. When Trump won, Gaga was among those supporting a petition asking U.S. electoral college members not to cast their votes for him.
People can bet on the length of the anthem, the colour of Gatorade dunked over the winning coach, the colour of announcer Joe Buck’s tie or Lady Gaga’s first lipstick or hair and, of course, will Lady Gaga mention Trump? It’s at even odds.
Trump supporters responded with their own petition on change.org, asking the NFL to pick anyone else to play the halftime show. Adding to the intrigue, last month Entertainment Weekly magazine published an anonymous claim that the NFL had forbidden Gaga from mentioning Trump on their stage. The NFL said that story was bunk.
Remember when the big deal at a halftime show was a wardrobe malfunction?
“Super Bowl betting is big, It’s kind of like the game itself: It appeals to a large audience,” said B.C. Lottery spokesman Doug Cheng.
Last year’s Super Bowl saw $430,000 in bets placed on the game through the B.C. Lottery Corporation with about $18,000 of that on novelty bets. The 2016 Stanley Cup, by comparison, drew about $261,000 in bets.
Most of the money wagered is on the outcome of the game and on such factors as “how many yards will Tom Brady throw (for) or whether or not Matt Ryan with the Falcons will throw an interception,” Cheng said.
As of Wednesday, the favourite to win was the Patriots at just over 6:10 odds. A $10 bet on the Patriots would pay $16.10 if the team won.
Cheng had a warning about that: “The Patriots were the pre-season favourites with the best pre-season odds to win the Super Bowl. But since 2013, when we started tracking this stuff, the team with the best pre-season odds has never actually gone on to win the Super Bowl.”
That’s the thing about favourites in sports or politics. The lottery corporation took in $656,000 worth of bets last year on the U.S. election and in mid-October, just after the release of the Trump “grab them by the p-word” tape, Hillary Clinton was a solid bet to win.