The Super Bowl's Craziest Bets

06.02.2010, Gamblers will bet billions on this year's big game, but half will have nothing to do with who wins.

In theory, the Super Bowl is a football game played to crown an NFL champion each season. In reality, that's only true for hardcore fans. Most of the roughly 100 million people tuning in see Miami's Sun Life Stadium as one giant betting parlor.

Bettors are expected to lay down billions of dollars on this year's New Orleans Saints- Indianapolis Colts matchup, according to R.J. Bell of the betting Web site pregame.com. But only some $90 million will be wagered legally in the state of Nevada. The rest comes from online and other forms of underground wagering, a marketplace that's less affected by economic recession than the Las Vegas sports books are. Airfare and hotel reservations aren't needed to take the Saints and the points online.
Slide Show: 10 Crazy Super Bowl Bets
While Vegas has the Colts as 5 1/2 point favorites, only a little more than half the action is placed on the game's outcome. The rest is bet on what gambling types call "prop bets"--or propositions--quirky offshoots that draw money from causal fans looking for a reason to stay interested. Want to bet on who scores the first touchdown? How many yards Reggie Bush will run for (the oddsmakers say no more than 30)? The house will take your money. Want to wager on Saints quarterback Drew Brees surpassing 500 passing yards? You'll get 25 to 1.

"It's amazing how people cling to these things," says Bell. Most Nevada sports books offer more than 300 prop bets, many of which are aimed at drawing non-football sports fans into the action. If hockey is your thing, you can bet on your favorite goalie allowing fewer goals on Saturday or Sunday than Brees or Peyton Manning will throw interceptions. NBA fans can wager on who will score more points over the weekend--the Colts or LeBron James.

Prop bets have been around for years, to a degree. But they really gained momentum in the mid-1990s, according to Las Vegas Hilton Vice President Jay Kornegay, following a string of one-sided Super Bowls that had bored fans looking for more action. But don't look to his hotel's sports book for the truly offbeat wagers, such as whether the first touchdown will be celebrated with a spike, muscle flex or a signing of the ball with a Sharpie. That's reserved for the online world. The legal gambling halls stick to results that can be documented in a box score, the better to avoid any hassles from dissatisfied customers.

Über iGaming News:

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