The Los Angeles Rams went from the favorite in Super Bowl LIII to underdog in less than 60 minutes Sunday night.
Shortly after the New England Patriots defeated the Kansas City Chiefs, 37-31, in the AFC Championship game, Nevada oddsmakers quickly installed the Rams – 26-23 winners over the New Orleans Saints in the NFC Championship game – as a 1-point favorite.
It didn’t last.
Early money quickly flipped the line to anywhere from Patriots to a 1-point favorite to a 2.5-point favorite for the game, scheduled for Feb. 3 in Atlanta. The over-under on the total points for both teams was anywhere from 58 to 59 points.
“Didn’t take long to get there,” Las Vegas handicapper Dave Cokin wrote on Twitter. “I’d have opened (the) Pats (as the) favorite.”
Both championship games went to overtime.
Bettors wasted no time testing the opinion of oddsmakers at the Westgate Las Vegas Superbook as they went to the window to get down the first Super Bowl bets with the Rams listed as a 1-point favorite.
“It’s just been electric,” Westgate oddsmaker Jay Kornegay told Associated Press. “We certainly expect to set a new record this year.”
The focus on Super Bowl wagering is much keener nationwide than ever before after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a federal ban on sports betting last May. Eight states now offer the activity at casinos and racetracks.
William Hill US, which operates more than 100 sportsbooks in Nevada and manages sports betting operations in New Jersey, Mississippi and West Virginia, opened the game as a pick’em, but had the Patriots at a 2-point favorite within 45 minutes. By 9 p.m. PT, William Hioll had the line at Patriots as a 2.5-point favorite.
“The markets moved the line higher,” said Nick Bogdanovich, director of trading for William Hill US. “We’ll stay on the high side of the market.”
By Monday, hundreds of proposition wagers on the Super Bowl will become available for wagering activity.
Last year in Nevada, Super Bowl LII attracted a record $158.5 million in wagers, according to the Gaming Control Board. Bogdanovich said the interest in sports betting will push Nevada’s total to a new record.
“People have options on the East Coast, but we’re the only state on the West Coast (with legal sports betting),” Bogdanovich said. “We’re going to through the roof because the interest is at an all-time high.”
VSiN is projecting the total amount of money wagered on the Super Bowl nationwide will double from last year, to around $320 million, which would include Nevada’s total and the seven new sports betting states.
Wagering in Nevada on the Super Bowl has increased in nine out of the last 10 years, according to the Gaming Control Board.
The record $158.5 million in wagers in Nevada sports books on Super Bowl LII translated into $1.17 million in revenue, with books holding less than 1 percent of all bets as the Philadelphia Eagles defeated New England, 41-33.
Nevada sports books held a record 16.5 percent of all wagers – $19.6 million on wagers of $119.4 million – in 2014 on Super Bowl XLVIII when the Seattle Seahawks beat the Denver Broncos, 43-8.
The Rams victory over the Saints probably disappointed the Mississippi Gulf Coast’s newly-launched sports betting operations. Casinos said they experienced a bump in business from customers flocking to place bet on the Saints.
According to the Biloxi Sun Herald, Sports betting wasn’t seen as a big money maker for the Coast casinos, but win or lose on the Saints, the casinos have benefited. The 12 Coast casinos combined reported the best December in the 26 years of operation.
A Saints’ Super Bowl appearance could have been lucrative for the market.
“We’re seeing a lot of new faces,” said John Ferrucci, general manager of Silver Slipper Casino, and some of them turn into regulars. For the most part they are younger, he said, and often quite skilled at placing bets.
(Associated Press contributed)
Howard Stutz is the executive editor of CDC Gaming. He can be reached at hstutz@cdcgamingreports.com. Follow @howardstutz on Twitter.
