The sports industry and the legal sports betting industry are gearing up for the biggest single-day sports event of the year. The NFL’s annual Super Bowl is heading to SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles for this season’s Championship Game on Sunday, Feb. 13.
Always known as a huge betting event, the overall handle for Super Bowl LVI is poised to break records. More than 30 different states are now offering legal sports betting in some form. Adding to the excitement, players can now place bets via mobile devices in New York sportsbooks and Louisiana sportsbooks.
Jump toBreaking Down the Actual Game
Given all the hype surrounding the Super Bowl, the actual game itself sometimes gets lost in the translation. This year’s matchup features the AFC Champion Cincinnati Bengals as the ultimate longshot. They will face the Los Angeles Rams as the team representing the NFC.
For the second season in a row, the NFC Champion will be hosting the game. Tampa Bay beat the Kansas City Chiefs at Raymond James Stadium in Super Bowl LV. This year, the Rams will face the Bengals at SoFi Stadium in that LA-area venue’s inaugural season.
The early betting line opened the Rams as four-point favorites with the total for the game set at 49.5 points. Given the extended time frame before the actual kickoff, these lines will continue to move based on the betting money coming in.
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The natural lean should be towards the Rams as one of the preseason favorites to win the NFC. They came into the playoffs as the No. 4 seed in the conference behind the Green Bay Packers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Dallas Cowboys.
Cincinnati’s journey to this game reads like a Hollywood script. When the betting odds to win Super Bowl LVI were first released early last year, only the Jacksonville Jaguars had longer odds to win its all. At that time, you could have bet the Bengals at 80-to-1.
With all the early money going towards the favorites, those same odds ballooned to 125-to-1 ahead of Week 1 of the 2021 NFL regular season.
Cincinnati had long odds just to win its division. While the Baltimore Ravens were listed as +115 favorites to win the AFC North, the Bengals’ odds were set at +2500.
The Most Popular Way to Bet the Super Bowl
Most of the actual betting handle for Super Bowl LVI at US sportsbooks will still gravitate towards straight bets on the point spread and total line. However, that will not be the most popular way to bet this game in terms of the number of actual wagers.
Over the past several years, Super Bowl propositions bets have taken on a life of their own. Heading into this year’s game, US operators such as FanDuel and DraftKings have built out their Super Bowl betting board with pages upon pages of prop bet options.
Prop bet options go way beyond the game itself. From betting on the length of the National Anthem to the color of Gatorade poured on the winning coach, no stone is left unturned when it comes to wagering on the Super Bowl.
