Super Bowl Prop Bets: Outrageous but true
Super Bowl Prop Bets: Outrageous but true
Super Bowl Prop Bets: Outrageous but true
Super Bowl Sunday is the one day of the year your minister might ask you if the favorite will cover the spread and it's the one day no bookie will ever call in sick for.
The Super Bowl is the only game where every play has action on it. You see, Vegas takes advantage of the gambling holiday by creating as many proposition bets as possible. Prop bets are wagers on outcomes within the game.
Which team will have more first downs? Will there be a kick returned for a touchdown? If you can think of it, chances are, you can bet it.
Jay Kornegay, Executive Director of the Race and Sportsbook at Las Vegas Hilton, and a few accomplices, are credited with changing the landscape of prop betting during the ?90s.
Only one Super Bowl from 1990-97 was decided by less than double digits and the average margin of victory during that span was 19.6 points. Because of these one-sided games, Kornegay and his crew created ways to keep the games interesting.
?Halfway through the third quarter [bettors] were wandering around, they didn?t have anything to do,? he said. ?To keep everybody in their seats we basically expanded the prop menu.?
When the San Francisco 49ers were labeled as 18-point favorites over the San Diego Chargers in the 1995 Super Bowl, Kornegay knew he had a challenge on his hands to keep bettors interested.
?We took it to a new level in 1995,? he said. ?There were 30 or 40 props at that time so we doubled it because the game between the 49ers and Chargers was going to be lopsided. We had almost 100 props for that game and it was very well-received. From that point, it just got bigger and bigger every year.?
Kornegay and his brain trust of experts spent weeks producing the prop numbers for this Super Bowl?s lengthy sheet. They started working on them before the conference championships and Kornegay estimates they have somewhere around 430 prop bets on this year?s 24-page menu.
When the multitude of props first began to appear on the Vegas boards, the action was a little slow to come in. Now, Kornegay said they have people come in and bet as much as five figures on a single prop.
?We?ve always said that if you don?t have an opinion on the game itself, come and take a look at our board and we?ll give you one,? joked Kornegay.
Kornegay said bettors have really taken a liking to the cross-sport prop bets in recent years. He and his staff have posted nearly 75 of these props that mix the Super Bowl with sports like the NBA, college basketball, NHL, golf, soccer and NASCAR. One prop the Hilton offers is "Will the Orlando Magic's Dwight Howard have more free throw attempts on Sunday (vs. the Celtics) than the Saints and Colts will combine for first-quarter points?"
The coin toss is also a prop classic. The Hilton is supplying you with almost even money at -101 (risk $101 to win $100) for either heads or tails. But we all know metallic currency has a 50-50 shot of landing on one side or the other and history proves it.
Going into last season?s Super Bowl, 21 heads and 21 tails had turned up. When the Steelers incorrectly called tails, the NFC won its 12th straight coin toss and heads took a 22-21 advantage. So if the law of averages remains constant, this year?s toss will drop a tails.
So much fun with so many props to unwrap, it?s almost like Christmas. Let's muse over a few of the most outrageous prop bets offered for Super Sunday:
Gatorade props
Gatorade is the lifeblood of any athlete. But big game after big game we witness coaches getting doused with the famous sports beverage.
So oddsmakers have come up with a bet-quenching prop that asks: What color will the Gatorade be that sends a chill shock down the spine of the victorious coach?
Yellow is the favorite at less than even money with ?clear? or water coming in second at 8/5. Orange is posted at 11/2, lime green at 6/1 and we round out the odds with blue and red at 25/2.
Wait?aren?t lime green and yellow the same flavor?
But the Gatorade prop drenching doesn?t stop there. You can even attempt to predict whether defensive or offensive players will do the pouring.
This one likely depends on who is on the field at game?s end. If the offense is taking a knee, the shower will most certainly come from the defensive personnel who are listed at -165 (offense +135).
If this guy makes the trip down to Miami, he might be the favorite.
Celebrity props
Celebs can always be seen in the primo suites on Super Sunday and the books have delivered some odds on how many times the director in the production truck will cut to them.
Two sports figures that are sure to be there are Archie and Eli Manning. Oddsmakers have given the patriarchal Manning an over/under appearance number of 4 and Eli a total of 3.
These shots have to be live so those cute pics of the Manning boys in their football jerseys when they were six and 10 won?t count.
But what?s interesting about this prop is that the father and son could be sitting in close proximity to each other. If that?s the case, then the smart money would be on Eli because every pan to the Manning booth would likely show both.
Kim Kardashian, who boasts Saints all-purpose back Reggie Bush as her beau, has been given an appearance total of 2.5.
But the books have gone a few sizes extra with her prop options. They have asked bettors: If the Saints win the Super Bowl will Bush and Kardashian be engaged by July 31, 2010?
The answer of ?NO? is the popular choice with odds of -170. Come on now, it?s a match made in Hollywood.
And you can even wager on what color top the goddess will be wearing at the big game. Black is the favorite at 5/6, white comes in at 53/20 and any other color is 6/5.
Can?t she just throw on a pink No. 25 jersey? Oh wait, that didn?t work out too well for Jessica Simpson.
Halftime props
Iconic British rock band, The Who, is performing during this year?s Super Bowl halftime show. Let's just hope there isn't some sort of wardrobe malfunction.
During the band?s early years, The Who became the godfathers of on stage musical instrument destruction. After Pete Townsend accidentally broke the head of his guitar against a low ceiling during a 1964 show, he shattered the instrument in frustration, and the rest is history.
Propmakers have parlayed that act of theatrical chaos into a halftime betting opportunity. They ask: Will a member of The Who smash a guitar on stage during the halftime show? Books assume the band has mellowed in their later years with the answer of ?YES? getting +155 odds.
The second halftime prop featuring The Who stems from the first stating: If a member of the band smashes a guitar what will the guitar hit first? A fan is the funniest option available (lawsuit waiting to happen) and most profitable at 200/1 with the floor (1/4) going off as the favorite, followed by the speaker (7/2), microphone (9/2) and drummer (200/1).
Townsend was not only known for the six-string smashing technique but also his signature windmill move. So the prop gods want you to guess how many times Townsend will perform his legendary windmill strum. The total is set at 5.5 with the over (-175) taking the majority of action.
At the ripe age of 64 is Townsend still flexible enough to make the full rotation six times? Can you say torn rotator cuff?
Super Bowl Prop Bets: Outrageous but true
Super Bowl Prop Bets: Outrageous but true
Super Bowl Sunday is the one day of the year your minister might ask you if the favorite will cover the spread and it's the one day no bookie will ever call in sick for.
The Super Bowl is the only game where every play has action on it. You see, Vegas takes advantage of the gambling holiday by creating as many proposition bets as possible. Prop bets are wagers on outcomes within the game.
Which team will have more first downs? Will there be a kick returned for a touchdown? If you can think of it, chances are, you can bet it.
Jay Kornegay, Executive Director of the Race and Sportsbook at Las Vegas Hilton, and a few accomplices, are credited with changing the landscape of prop betting during the ?90s.
Only one Super Bowl from 1990-97 was decided by less than double digits and the average margin of victory during that span was 19.6 points. Because of these one-sided games, Kornegay and his crew created ways to keep the games interesting.
?Halfway through the third quarter [bettors] were wandering around, they didn?t have anything to do,? he said. ?To keep everybody in their seats we basically expanded the prop menu.?
When the San Francisco 49ers were labeled as 18-point favorites over the San Diego Chargers in the 1995 Super Bowl, Kornegay knew he had a challenge on his hands to keep bettors interested.
?We took it to a new level in 1995,? he said. ?There were 30 or 40 props at that time so we doubled it because the game between the 49ers and Chargers was going to be lopsided. We had almost 100 props for that game and it was very well-received. From that point, it just got bigger and bigger every year.?
Kornegay and his brain trust of experts spent weeks producing the prop numbers for this Super Bowl?s lengthy sheet. They started working on them before the conference championships and Kornegay estimates they have somewhere around 430 prop bets on this year?s 24-page menu.
When the multitude of props first began to appear on the Vegas boards, the action was a little slow to come in. Now, Kornegay said they have people come in and bet as much as five figures on a single prop.
?We?ve always said that if you don?t have an opinion on the game itself, come and take a look at our board and we?ll give you one,? joked Kornegay.
Kornegay said bettors have really taken a liking to the cross-sport prop bets in recent years. He and his staff have posted nearly 75 of these props that mix the Super Bowl with sports like the NBA, college basketball, NHL, golf, soccer and NASCAR. One prop the Hilton offers is "Will the Orlando Magic's Dwight Howard have more free throw attempts on Sunday (vs. the Celtics) than the Saints and Colts will combine for first-quarter points?"
The coin toss is also a prop classic. The Hilton is supplying you with almost even money at -101 (risk $101 to win $100) for either heads or tails. But we all know metallic currency has a 50-50 shot of landing on one side or the other and history proves it.
Going into last season?s Super Bowl, 21 heads and 21 tails had turned up. When the Steelers incorrectly called tails, the NFC won its 12th straight coin toss and heads took a 22-21 advantage. So if the law of averages remains constant, this year?s toss will drop a tails.
So much fun with so many props to unwrap, it?s almost like Christmas. Let's muse over a few of the most outrageous prop bets offered for Super Sunday:
Gatorade props
Gatorade is the lifeblood of any athlete. But big game after big game we witness coaches getting doused with the famous sports beverage.
So oddsmakers have come up with a bet-quenching prop that asks: What color will the Gatorade be that sends a chill shock down the spine of the victorious coach?
Yellow is the favorite at less than even money with ?clear? or water coming in second at 8/5. Orange is posted at 11/2, lime green at 6/1 and we round out the odds with blue and red at 25/2.
Wait?aren?t lime green and yellow the same flavor?
But the Gatorade prop drenching doesn?t stop there. You can even attempt to predict whether defensive or offensive players will do the pouring.
This one likely depends on who is on the field at game?s end. If the offense is taking a knee, the shower will most certainly come from the defensive personnel who are listed at -165 (offense +135).
If this guy makes the trip down to Miami, he might be the favorite.
Celebrity props
Celebs can always be seen in the primo suites on Super Sunday and the books have delivered some odds on how many times the director in the production truck will cut to them.
Two sports figures that are sure to be there are Archie and Eli Manning. Oddsmakers have given the patriarchal Manning an over/under appearance number of 4 and Eli a total of 3.
These shots have to be live so those cute pics of the Manning boys in their football jerseys when they were six and 10 won?t count.
But what?s interesting about this prop is that the father and son could be sitting in close proximity to each other. If that?s the case, then the smart money would be on Eli because every pan to the Manning booth would likely show both.
Kim Kardashian, who boasts Saints all-purpose back Reggie Bush as her beau, has been given an appearance total of 2.5.
But the books have gone a few sizes extra with her prop options. They have asked bettors: If the Saints win the Super Bowl will Bush and Kardashian be engaged by July 31, 2010?
The answer of ?NO? is the popular choice with odds of -170. Come on now, it?s a match made in Hollywood.
And you can even wager on what color top the goddess will be wearing at the big game. Black is the favorite at 5/6, white comes in at 53/20 and any other color is 6/5.
Can?t she just throw on a pink No. 25 jersey? Oh wait, that didn?t work out too well for Jessica Simpson.
Halftime props
Iconic British rock band, The Who, is performing during this year?s Super Bowl halftime show. Let's just hope there isn't some sort of wardrobe malfunction.
During the band?s early years, The Who became the godfathers of on stage musical instrument destruction. After Pete Townsend accidentally broke the head of his guitar against a low ceiling during a 1964 show, he shattered the instrument in frustration, and the rest is history.
Propmakers have parlayed that act of theatrical chaos into a halftime betting opportunity. They ask: Will a member of The Who smash a guitar on stage during the halftime show? Books assume the band has mellowed in their later years with the answer of ?YES? getting +155 odds.
The second halftime prop featuring The Who stems from the first stating: If a member of the band smashes a guitar what will the guitar hit first? A fan is the funniest option available (lawsuit waiting to happen) and most profitable at 200/1 with the floor (1/4) going off as the favorite, followed by the speaker (7/2), microphone (9/2) and drummer (200/1).
Townsend was not only known for the six-string smashing technique but also his signature windmill move. So the prop gods want you to guess how many times Townsend will perform his legendary windmill strum. The total is set at 5.5 with the over (-175) taking the majority of action.
At the ripe age of 64 is Townsend still flexible enough to make the full rotation six times? Can you say torn rotator cuff?
