When it comes to the Super Bowl, you can bet on it — every bit of it
There is serious money riding on what color Gatorade gets splashed on the winning coach in Super Bowl 54; it’s one of the most popular prop bets available on this, the highest holy day on the betting calendar.
For the uninitiated, a prop bet, short for proposition, is a wager placed not on the outcome of Kansas City vs. San Francisco, but on any number of happenstances in and around the game, including the Gatorade deal.
I could not make that up, but I’ll bet there are prop bets that I can make up, so
for our warm-up let’s play a little game we’ll call Fact or Fake. I’ll describe a prop bet; you decide if it’s real or not, fact or fake. Score yourself at home. Or don’t. I don’t care. The prize is that this is likely the only prop bet all day on which you can’t lose money. Ready?
No? You think I’m switching topics now?
1. You can bet that one or both men in the broadcast booth, analyst Troy Aikman or veteran Fox playby-play guy Joe Buck, will use the word “underdog.” Fact or Fake?
2. You can bet on whether Troy Aikman or Joe Buck will use the word “hibernaculum.” Fact or Fake?
3. You can bet on whether Joe Buck will refer to his father, the late Jack Buck. Fact or Fake?
4. You can bet on whether Joe Buck will refer to Pulitzer Prize-winning author Pearl Buck. Fact or Fake?
5. You can bet on which team will win the 15th Puppy Bowl, Team Fluff or Team Ruff. Fact or Fake? Either way, s’gonna be a dogfight.
Prop bets have probably been around since David v. Goliath (“I’ll give you 4-1 he falls forward.”) but really took off with the betting public after William “Refrigerator” Perry, a 350-pound defensive tackle, scored a rushing touchdown for the Bears in the Super Bowl in 1986. It was such a popular proposition that the legal sportsbooks in Nevada took a pounding. Some had offered 30-1 odds, but the buzz generated by the bet has more than paid off over time.
Today, prop bets will account for more than 50% of the action in Vegas, according to several sites that monitor sports betting, a significant impetus for the expansion of football gambling that now goes on legally in 14 states, twice as many as last year.
Because a number of things that used to be widely illegal are no longer — betting, marijuana, extorting foreign governments for help in your election — the American Gaming Association estimates there are 3 million more Super Bowl bettors today than last year, and that close to $7 billion will be ventured on the game and its props legally and illegally. Mobile platform betting is up 19% as well. All of which, the AGA guesses, brings the NFL an additional $2.3 billion from increased fan engagement.
Judging from the prop bets placed by the opposing fan bases, betting engine Bovada infers that 49ers fans seem less interested in the issue at hand than they are in the halftime show. Three of the top four prop bets preferred by people living in San Francisco are about which Shakira song will be sung first during halftime, which Jennifer Lopez song will be first, and which song will be last. Meanwhile in Kansas City, the top four prop bets are all about the game, from who will be MVP to whether a kick will be returned for a touchdown. But back to our game.
6. You can bet on whether any player in the Super Bowl will be arrested after the game. Fact or Fake?
7. You can bet on whether any player in the Super Bowl will be arrested during the game. Fact or Fake?
8. You can bet on which political ad will appear first during the broadcast, Donald Trump’s or Michael Bloomberg’s? Fact or Fake.
9. You can bet on how many tweets the president will generate during the game. Fact or Fake?
10. You can bet on whether Donald Trump will tweet the phrase “total exoneration” during the game. Fact or Fake?
11. You can bet on the length of Demi Lovato’s national anthem. Fact or Fake.
12. You can bet on the length of the final word “brave,” in Demi Lovato’s national anthem. Fact or Fake.
13. You can bet that Demi Lovato will include the word “purfluous” during the national anthem. Fact or Fake.
14. You can bet on whether an offensive lineman will score a touchdown. Fact or Fake.
15. You can bet on the coin toss. Fact or Fake.
16. You can bet on whether the referee will have to explain which side of the coin is heads and which is tails. Fact or Fake?.
17. You can bet on how many times the broadcasters will invoke the name of the late Chiefs coach Hank Stram. Fact or Fake?
18. You can vote on how many times the word “matriculate” is used on the broadcast. Fact or Fake?
19. You can bet on whether any player will raise a fist or take a knee during the national anthem. Fact or Fake?
20. You can bet on whether any player will eat a sandwich during the national anthem. Fact or Fake?
Answers: 1) Fact, 2) Fake, 3) Fact, 4) Fake, 5) Fact, 6) Fact, 7) Fake, 8) Fact, 9) Fact, 10) Fake, 11)
Fact, 12) Fact, 13) Fake, 14) Fact, 15) Fact, 16) Fake, 17) Fake, 18) Fake, 19) Fact, 20) Fake.