As the Super Bowl between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers approaches on February 2, bettors in Indiana can now gamble on the color of Gatorade dumped on the winning coach. Or which team will win the coin toss. Or whether the Chiefs will give coach Andy Reid his first Super Bowl.
On January 14, the Indiana Gambling Commission approved a list of wagers known as proposition bets. In addition to the coin toss outcome and Gatorade complexion, the commission approved:
- Player to correctly call the coin toss
- Team to win the coin toss and game
- Will there be a flea flicker?
- Who will the Super Bowl MVP thank first?
- Player to retire after the game
These bets are new for Indiana, but last year New Jersey sportsbooks offered similar wagers. DraftKings NJ featured bets on whether the Patriots’ tight end Rob Gronkowski or quarterback Tom Brady would retire. FanDuel Sportsbook also accepted wagers on the Gatorade color, among other things.
Sportsbooks don’t consider prop bets as big money-makers.
“We treat them as fun options for our customers,” said Kevin Hennessy, director, publicity for FanDuel.
Not that they’re loss leaders.
“If they lost money, they wouldn’t offer them,” said David Schwartz, a gambling historian and expert with the University of Nevada Las Vegas. “As with any wager in any casino, it’s risk management. They don’t want to over-expose themselves and put themselves in the position of being gamblers rather than gaming managers.”
Still, prop bets are good bets for the sportsbooks, Schwartz said. “They stimulate interest and spread the action out. Instead of betting everything on the spread and the over/under, bettors might split their bets.”
Over half of DraftKings total bets on last year’s Super Bowl were on props, said a DraftKings spokesperson. “We offer prop bets in all states in which we operate digitally, including New Jersey, Indiana, West Virginia, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania,” the spokesperson said. “The kinds of prop bets we will have will be surrounding on field of play and off field of play, box score, and others.”
Below is a list of some prop bets that will be available to customers in New Jersey:
- Coin toss outcome
- Coin toss winner
- Coin toss player to correctly call the toss
- Team to win the coin toss and the game
- Will there be a flea flicker?
- Color of Gatorade shower
- Who will the Super Bowl MVP thank first?
- Player to retire after the game
- Will any scoring drive take less time than it takes to sing the national anthem?
- Offensive/defensive lineman to score
DraftKings is also doing a special prop-driven jackpot for Super Bowl LIV. For every $10 prop bet submitted, a customer will get a ticket to enter into a $100,000 jackpot.
The Indiana Gambling Commission previously approved betting on all the major sports league drafts. With prop bets, the state sets itself apart as one of the more adventurous in the country.
Here’s the popularity of 2019 Super Bowl Prop Bets in New Jersey by bet count, according to FanDuel.
1: Coin toss result
2: First Gatorade color dunked over the winning coach
3: Team to win the coin toss and win the game
4: Coin toss winner
5: Coin toss winner wins game
6: Coin toss call result
7: Coin toss to be retaken
Below is FanDuel data for each $100 bet on which color Gatorade would be dunked over the winning Super Bowl coach in 2019. The winning color was blue.
Color Percentage of Bets Odds at Kickoff
Blue 23 +150
Clear 12 +400
Orange 25 +400
Red 11 +1000
Yellow 29 +400
“We have the coin toss already up in New Jersey. We will offer other approved markets as we get closer to the big game,” Hennessy said.
The Indiana Gaming Commission recently voted to allow the state’s casinos and mobile sports wagering operators to set odds and accept bets on the winners at the 92nd Academy Awards, Sunday, February 9. Indiana will be the second state to allow Oscar wagering.
The rule allows wagers on all 24 Oscar categories, although most Indiana sportsbooks are expected to limit betting to the six major awards categories: best picture, director, actor, actress, supporting actor and supporting actress.
Last year, New Jersey sportsbooks reportedly handled approximately $1 million in Academy Awards bets. PlayUSA Analyst Jessica Welman said, “Oscars betting was a hit in its first year in New Jersey, and we suspect that interest will only grow. We saw last year that bettors were less motivated by the favorites and more interested in backing their own favorite films and movie stars. This year’s field of nominees has star power in front of and behind the camera, so that should help drive interest.”
