Every year we get a lot of questions about how to bet on the Super Bowl and that’s what we’re going to teach you today. We’ll cover the different places you can bet on the game, and we’ll explain the different kinds of bets that are offered and how to bet them.
Where to bet the Super Bowl - There are several places and/or ways that you can bet on the Super Bowl. We list these options below.
Las Vegas – One of the best known ways to bet on football is by going toLas Vegas, and placing a bet with one of the many sportsbook there.Nevada is the only state inAmerica that allows you to walk up to a window and place a bet on any and every kind of sport. Most casinos in Vegas have a sportsbook inside their casino making it really easy to bet the big game. The only problem is that you have to be inLas Vegas to make these bets, because Vegas casinos currently do not accept bets online or over the phone.
Betting Online – Fifteen years ago there were just a handful of online sportsbooks, now there are literally hundreds. Some of these sportsbooks are great. Some of these sportsbooks are terrible. There is currently no single worldwide body that regulates online gambling, and because of that you really need to watch which online sportsbook you use. You want to choose one you can trust with a long history and good customer service.
For the last several years we’ve rated Bovada as the best online sportsbook, and we’ve ranked them #1 again this year. Bovada is a trusted online sportsbook that’s been around for over 16 years. They keep every customer deposit in a separate, secure bank account to ensure that your money is safe. They also have great customer service with an open and friendly staff, but most importantly they offer an incredible amount of bets on the NFL Super Bowl.
We’ve also compiled a list of the 7 best online sportsbooks to use to bet on the Super Bowl in 2012 (LINK). Bovada is our recommended sportsbook, but if you use another one please check out our list to see how we rank it. If your online sportsbook is not listed here, we don’t endorse it and don’t recommend betting with them. Your money is too important to trust with a sportsbook that’s not one of the best.
Bookies – You can find a local bookie in every city inAmerica. If you don’t have one, and want to find one, we recommend asking a bartender at your local sports bar. He can probably give you a phone number or even introduce you to one.
We don’t recommend betting with bookies. Bookies can be dangerous people who might resort to physical violence to collect on a debt. They’re often involved in not just book making, but in other kinds of criminal activities as well. The last thing you want is to win a huge bet on the Super Bowl, and have your bookie busted for drugs that next day and never get paid.
The only real upside of using a bookie is that they can have different lines fromLas Vegasand the online sportsbooks. Most bookies only take local bets, so a bookie inNew York will get hundreds of bets on the Giants and not a lot on the Patriots. In order to balance this out, the bookie will often change the odds that he offers to entice more people to bet on the Pats. So if the national line on the game is the Patriots -3, a local bookie in New York might make his line the Patriots -2. Therefore if you live inNew Yorkand want to bet on the Patriots, it might make sense to use a local bookie in order to get better odds.
How to bet the Super Bowl – There are a lot of different kinds of bets offered on the Super Bowl. We are going to go through each different kind below and explain how to bet them.
The Spread Bet – The current spread on the Super Bowl is the New England Patriots -3 vs the New York Giants. This means that if you bet onNew England with the spread and they win by 3 points you win, but if the Patriots lose by 3 points, you lose. If you bet onNew York with the spread and the Giants either win the game or lose the game by less than 3 points, you win, and if the Giants lose the game by more than 3 points, you lose. Lastly if the game ends by exactly 3 points, the bet would be a push and you would get your money back.
The benefit on betting on the spread is that it’s close to a even money bet.Las Vegascreates the spread in order to offer a bet were you can get close to 50/50 odds on your money. The exact odds on the spread bet are -110. This means that you have to bet $11 to win $10. In order to do this, they need to offer a bet that they think half their bettors will bet onNew Englandand the other half will bet onNew York. Right now, Vegas thinks that the Patriots have a better chance of winning, so they are offering the Patriots -3 to entice more people to bet on the Giants +3 -110. Patriots backers who think thatNew Englandwill win by more than 3 points can also bet the spread at -110.
The Money Line Bet – The money line bet is a bet on which team will win the game straight up regardless of the spread.New England is favored, and that’s reflected in this line. The current odds on the money line are the New York Giants +120 and the New England Patriots -140. This means that if you want to bet the Giants to win, you can bet $10 to win $12, but if you want to bet on the Patriots to win, you will need to bet $14 to win $10.
The Over/Under Bet (also known as the Total Bet) – This is a bet on the total number of points scored in the game. The current over/under on the Super Bowl is 55, and you can bet on whether you think the combined final score of the game will be over 55 points or under 55 points.
Let’s do some examples to make sure everyone understands this bet. IfNew Englandscores 20 points and the Giants score 22 points, the total number of points scored in the Super Bowl would be 42 points. This is under the 55 points, so if you bet on the under, you would win, and if you bet the over, you lose. Now let’s say that the Patriots score 35 point andNew Yorkstill scores 22. The combine score would be 57 points, more than the Super Bowl total bet of 55. So if you bet the over, you would win, and the under bet would lose.
Proposition Bets (or Prop Bets) – Prop bets are bets that can be on just about anything, and there are usually 100s of different prop bets offered for the Super Bowl. These bets can range from the total number of yards that Tom Brady will throw for to the number of times the announcers talk about Eli Manning’s brother, Peyton. Some of the most unusual ones are based on the amount of time it takes to sing the national anthem or on the sets list of the Super Bowl halftime show. Some standard prop bets that are offered every year are which team will score first, will there be a safety, will there be a kickoff return for a touchdown, and even who will win the coin toss?
Super Bowl prop bets have become as legitimate as the spread, the money line and over/under bets. When there are 100s of bets offered, bettors can usually find some bets that they like. A lot of bettors also play fantasy football, and prop bets (such as the number of yards for Victor Cruz or will Rob Gronkowsk score a TD) cater to the fantasy football community.
This is our list of where and how to bet on the Super Bowl. This list was written for the 2012 Super Bowl XLVI inIndianapolisbetween the New England Patriots and the New York Giants, but it can really apply to any Super Bowl in any year. These are the basics of what you need to know to bet on the Super Bowl, and we assumed that since you are reading this, that’s exactly what you plan to do. So good luck! We hope you win every bet you place!
PS. If you are here looking for a complete list of prop bets offered on the Super Bowl, we have them here. (LINK) Good luck!
