What you need to know about Super Bowl wagers
A year after a 412 season, the 49ers are headed to the Super Bowl following a 3720 victory over the Packers in Sunday’s NFC Championship Game at Levi’s Stadium.
Few fans would have put money on the team to win the Lombardi Trophy at the start of the season, but expectations couldn’t be higher now. The 49ers will face AFC champion Kansas City on Feb. 2 in Miami.
The mostwatched sporting event of the year brings out bettors across the country, from savvy gamblers who are uptodate on injuries and analytics to participants in office pools who might not know the difference between Jimmy G and Jimmy Dean.
For the Faithful, as well as the bandwagon jumpers looking to lay a little money on the 49ers in the Super Bowl, here are the answers to five key questions:
Where can I place a bet?
Get ready for a trip to Lake Tahoe or Las Vegas — or even Oregon. Betting in the Golden State still isn’t a legal option.
“Nowhere in California,” said Fred Castano, a spokesman for the California Gambling Control Commission.
It’s legal to place sports bets in 21 states, thanks to a 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, and 14 are actively taking wagers. California is just starting the process of deciding whether sports wagering should be permitted, and where it could be allowed: tribal casinos, racetracks, card clubs or mobile phones. Meanwhile, many Californians will place wagers illegally, either with bookies or offshore mobile apps.
California’s 69 tribal casinos can’t accept sports bets. Casinos on Lake Tahoe’s north and south shores are the closest places with sports books.
Are Super Bowl pools legal?
Pools in which people toss in cash and predict scores or randomly choose squares on a chart are nearly as common in offices and bars as chicken wings at a
Super Bowl party. But popularity doesn’t make the pools legal.
California law makes it a crime for anyone to operate or participate in a pool or wager on sporting events, with penalties up to $5,000 or a year behind bars. The stakes rise for multiple offenses.
But a separate law grants leniency for pools in which no one, other than the winner, profits off the operation. The caveat is everyone must have an equal shot, a max of $2,500 can be at stake and the pool cannot be online. In such cases, it’s still illegal but the penalty is reduced to an infraction that could result in a $250 fine, which still would cut into your winnings.
Jennifer Shaw, an employment attorney, often advises clients to avoid office pools, not out of legal concerns but because they can make some employees feel pressured to participate or feel offended by being left out, or simply suck up work time.
“It creates a lot of drama,” Shaw said. “It’s just frankly not worth it. Just make a bet with Uncle Vinny.”
How are point spreads set?
The most common form of bet, particularly among sports fans and novice gamblers, involves a point spread. Oddsmakers set a betting line, which says which team is favored to win and by how many points. The bettor simply picks a side, either betting that the favored team will win by more than the point spread or that the underdog will either win or lose by fewer points than the spread.
For instance, the early line for Super Bowl LIV has Kansas City favored by one point over the 49ers. Should the Chiefs win by more than a point, bettors who placed money on them will collect.
Point spreads can change frequently, depending on a number of factors, including injuries, roster changes, a big bet or too much money being placed on one team.
Those who set point spreads are less concerned about which team they think will win a game than who the bettors think will win. Point spreads are meant to balance the bets, minimizing any potential casino loss. For example, if there’s a surge in betting on the favorite, the spread likely will be increased so that fewer people place bets on the favorite.
“Basically, at this stage of the season, it’s all about anticipating where the money is going,” said Nick Bogdanovich, director of trading for William Hill U.S., which operates 113 sports books in Nevada, including three each on the north and south shores of Tahoe.
William Hill also offers mobile betting in Nevada, which accounts for nearly twothirds of its sports wagers, he said.
On what else can I bet?
Another popular bet is the overunder, which is based on the total number of points scored and ignores who wins the game. If the overunder is 40 and the final score is 2417, those who bet on the over win and those who chose the under lose. If the game ends with 40 points total, it’s a push and all bets are returned.
What if I don’t even like football but want to bet?
You’re in luck. Some casinos offer proposition bets, or prop bets, on anything from which team will win the coin flip to how long the national anthem will last. This year’s prop bets also feature wagers on how much skin halftime performers Jennifer Lopez and Shakira will show a la Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction at the 2004 Super Bowl.
As the Super Bowl has grown into much more than a football game, Bogdanovich said, interest in prop bets has surged.
“People bet much more on the props than the outcome of the game,” he said.