The Los Angeles Rams beat the Cincinnati Bengals 23-20 in a game that went down to the wire. Now that we dispensed with the obligatory score, we turn to sports betting, beginning in Nevada. The state shattered the record for Super Bowl betting handle.
Nevada’s 179 books took $179.8 million in bets, demolishing the prior record of $158.6 million in 2018 when the Eagles beat the Patriots. The books won $15.4 million for a win percentage of 8.6, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
“I think the general acceptance of sports wagering is a big part of it,” Red Rock Resort sportsbook director Chuck Esposito said. “The increased volume on both in-play (betting) and props; the continued growth of mobile; the restrictions on masks lifted; the 100 percent occupancy compared to 50 percent last year; and the willingness industry-wide to take higher limits.”
It was the first major event held in the city since Nevada dropped its indoor mask mandate.
“Another factor is the rise in larger bets than we’ve been seeing in recent years. We’ve seen an increase in million-dollar wagers across town,” Westgate SuperBook vice president Jay Kornegay said.
Having a California team in the Super Bowl also helped boost the handle, Caesars vice president of trading Craig Mucklow said. “Outside of the Raiders being in the Super Bowl, whenever a California team is a participant, Nevada will always see an astronomical handle. If the Raiders ever make it, that will be the record I doubt we ever see beaten.”
For the Super Bowl, the line moved toward Los Angeles as the favorite about three days before the game, Sports Illustrated reported.
Basically, while Las Vegas sportsbooks take a cut of every bet and win either way, the Super Bowl created a situation where Vegas won even bigger, according to InvesBrain.
Both Caesars and MGM won millions on the game because of this unusual scenario.
Las Vegas hit a trifecta worth a ton of money because while the Rams won, they failed to cover the point spread or the total points with the Bengals included.
“What a kind of Hollywood ending with the way that game finished,” Esposito said. “Giving them the ball back with 1:25 left, with the way this season has gone, I thought there was a real chance it could go to overtime. But the Cinderella slipper finally fell off.”
BetMGM won seven figures on the game despite a bettor winning two of three $1 million bets on the Rams, said MGM Resorts Director of Trading Jeff Stoneback.
Caesars Sportsbook won a number of seven figure bets, including $9.5 million wagered on the underdog Bengals by Houston furniture store owner Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale.
“It is what it is. We took the bet, and if it wins, we congratulate him and pay it out,” Mucklow said. “It’s nice to get that kind of bet beat and be the company that takes those kinds of bets.”
Caesars lost millions on Odell Beckham Jr. scoring the first touchdown, he said. “Beckham Jr. was huge for the public,” Mucklow said. “That cost us a couple seven figures.”
BetMGM also took a six-figure hit on that prop.
Caesars lost seven figures on Bengals running back Joe Mixon throwing a TD pass to Tee Higgins.
The Westgate SuperBook lost on that same prop. “It just wasn’t the perfect scenario for us,” Kornegay said. “But it could’ve been a lot worse.”
With props accounting for more than half the Super Bowl betting handle, SuperBook director John Murray said books would prefer a relatively boring game.
“Our biggest need every year in the Super Bowl is for the game to be kind of uneventful,” SuperBook director John Murray said. “If the Rams won 20-10 or something like that, that would be the ideal outcome for us. I’m sure we’d clean up on props.”
South Point sportsbook director Chris Andrews agrees.
“The handle is not that great on the game, but the props are doing unbelievable business,” he said. “The ones we get play on every year are whether there will be overtime, a safety and a 2-point conversion.”
We know football is king. In another universe, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said this: sports betting “inevitably will fuel speculation, distrust, and accusations of point-shaving or game-fixing.”
More than 100 million Americans were eligible to legally bet on the Super Bowl, with more added in as new states legalize wagering. And Goodell’s premonition? So much word vomit.
Those attitudes changed in a hurry once legalized sports betting spread around the country. And not just for the NFL, but MLB, NHL, NBA, and NCAA. It’s good to keep that in mind as the tallies roll in from the Super Bowl this year, according to Bloomberg.
This sets the standard for a return-to-normal March Madness.
The state Division of Gaming Enforcement announced preliminary numbers February 15, showing a year-over-year increase of 22 percent in the total amount bet on the Big Game. Sportsbooks took $143.7 million in bets and generated $7.8 million in revenue from Super Bowl Sunday, based on the unaudited data from the DGE, according to PlayNJ.com.
New Jersey’s Super Bowl betting data includes the state’s 12 retail sportsbooks and 20-plus online sports betting apps.
The DGE did not release a breakdown of retail and online sports betting for the Super Bowl. Mobile and online sportsbooks typically account for around 90 percent. This year’s Super Bowl betting results were more favorable to the New Jersey gambling public than one year ago.
In 2020 New Jersey gamblers put down $54.2 million. When the game was over, the sportsbooks reported a loss of $4.2 million. The year before, the bookmakers lost $4.5 million on Super Bowl betting.
The number of online and mobile betting options increased in 2022 with newcomers Barstool, Betway and PlayUp all launching since Super Bowl LV.
Meanwhile, due to technical issues, Washington, D.C.’s official sports betting app, GambetDC, became unavailable at 4:15 p.m. on Super Bowl Sunday, just two hours ahead of the game. It was not back online until Monday afternoon.
The outage affected users of Apple iPhones and tablets. GambetDC said bettors still could use the Android app or place bets through GambetDC’s website or in person at 39 retail locations.
GambetDC also tweeted, “Hi there! We have provided a free $10 bet to be used in game for this inconvenience. Please let me know if we can assist with anything else!”
Nicole Jordan, spokeswoman for the Office of Lottery and Gaming, which oversees sports betting, said the problems occurred because the “app provider did not obtain approval from Apple for a required update,” resulting in the app’s temporary removal from the Apple iOS platform. “OLG is reviewing the impact of Sunday’s outage on sales,” Jordan said.
Mayor Muriel E. Bowser said, “I expect to get an explanation. Obviously if we’re going to have any system in the government including for sports betting, it should work, and it should especially work on the biggest sports day of the year.” Bowser added she will ask the D.C. Chief Financial Officer, whose office oversees the lottery, about the snafu.
The app has been criticized since D.C.’s chief financial officer asked the D.C. council to approve a controversial $215 million no-bid contract in 2019 for Greek lottery contractor Intralot. When the app debuted in 2020, residents expressed anger over its poor odds and technical glitches. Councilwoman Elissa Silverman tweeted, “When 5 D.C. council members including myself voted against this contract, we knew it was bad but even I didn’t foresee it being this abysmal.”
Specifically, in a report from the D.C. auditor published late last year, between May 2020 and March 2021, the app grossed $5.5 million, of which only $444,000 went to the city. Initial estimates for 2021 said the city would receive $22 million. By comparison, the William Hill brick-and-mortar sportsbook in the Capital One Arena produced $1.8 million in tax revenue for 2021.
GeoComply, provider of geolocation data for the gaming industry, said more than 80.1 million Super Bowl-related transactions occurred over the weekend across the U.S., 2.26 times the number for the 2021 Super Bowl. It also reported since Friday, February 11 at midnight, approximately 5.6 million unique accounts accessed legal online sportsbooks, a 95 percent increase over last year.
