After a record 9.4 million was wagered on last year’s Super Bowl, it surprised many to see that number drop to only 6 million in the big game this year between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks. Of the amount wagered, Nevada sports books only won .3 million, or 2.8 percent. Last year saw the books keep .7 million in the anticlimactic blowout between the same Seahawks and Denver Broncos.
The sports books offset losses from the outcome of the game by winning big on all the prop bets, such as the coin toss, in which William Hill profited $1,000. So, what would have happened if Seattle actually won the game? Jay Rood, MGM Resorts sports book director said, “It would have been astronomical. Everyone in the state, I think, would have had a big win,” then added, “A yard and a half and the state probably has the best Super Bowl ever.”
“Anybody who walked to the counter and uttered the word ‘teaser’ won,” Rood said. The most popular parlay was for the Patriots to win and over 47.5 points. The largest wager at MGM’s books was $1.22 million, which was wagered on the Patriots. The paltry win for the books was the smallest since 2011, when $724,200 in profit accounted for just .8 percent of money wagered. In the previous decade, the only time the books lost was in 2008, when the New York Giants defeated the Patriots 17-14.
The American Gaming Association predicted $3.8 billion would be wagered illegally on the game. To put that in perspective, in 2014, $3.9 billion was wagered in total in Nevada sports books.
