Total Super Bowl Betting Experience
There will be approximately $10 to $12 billion wagered on this year's Super Bowl and if you're reading this article, the odds are good that at least a few of those dollars will belong to you.Betting on the Super Bowl has practically become a national pastime, as people who don't gamble on any other sporting event often find themselves with a vested interest in the outcome of the game.
There are many different ways to wager on the Super Bowl, ranging from the always-popular office pools to friendly wagers with friends, family, or co-workers, to betting through a sports book. We'll look at many of the different ways, as well as give some tips and suggestions to improve your chances.
Office Pools
The most popular type of Super Bowl office pool is the box pool, also known as a square pool. It's a 100-square grid, where bettors fill in their names and then draw numbers for the corresponding squares.The cost of these pools can range from 25-cents per square to hundreds of dollars per square. There's really no minimum or maximum cost, it's simply whatever the pool organizer believes is a cost to get the pool filled.
The best part about the 100-square pool is that it offers bettors the opportunity to win a lot of money for very little risk.
If you're having a Super Bowl party or attending one, you'll probably see square pools floating about, and if not, you can make one pretty quickly. See Creating a Super Bowl Box Pool for instructions.
Box pools can also work for smaller gatherings by simply using a low cost per square, so that people are more inclined to purchase more than one square.
The other popular type of Super Bowl party pool for small gatherings is to simply use 10 pieces of paper and label them 0-9 and then draw for numbers. The combined score of the two teams determines the pool winner. If the score is 24-17 the person with the "1" would be the winner, while a 28-17 score would see the person with the "5" taking home the money.
Betting the Point Spread and Total
The most popular method of betting on the Super Bowl will simply be betting with the point spread or the total. The current point spread is Pittsburgh -7 points, and the total is right about 47.What that means, is that bettors taking Pittsburgh must see the Steelers win by seven or more points to win their bets, while Arizona bettors will win their bets if the Cardinals lose by six or fewer points or win the game. The total is the combined score of both teams and bettors can wager over 47, meaning more than 47 points will be scored in the Super Bowl, or under, meaning less than 47 points will be scored in the game.
Newcomers to sports gambling may want to read Understanding Point Spreads and Understanding Totals for more detailed explanations.
But being that it's the Super Bowl, bookies are going to give bettors as many ways as possible to lose their money, there are also alternative point spreads, which are point spread or totals bets, but using different point spreads than Pittsburgh -7 or 47 for the total.
Alternative point spreads are listed using the money line (see Understanding Money Lines if you're new to sports betting) and the alternative points spreads can be found here.
Proposition Bets
Super Bowl proposition betting has become big business for sportsbooks, as more and more money is wagered on propositions each year.A proposition bet is really any bet other than one against the point spread or total. There's really no standard definition of a prop bet and the term is used pretty loosely.
For the Super Bowl, I'll generally break propositions into three different categories, Team Propositions, Player Propositions, and Game Propositions. Technically, betting on the Super Bowl MVP would be considered a Player Proposition, but since those odds were released several days before the other Player Propositions, I created a separate listing just for them.
Sports bettors will hear plenty about the different proposition bets leading up the big game. These types of bets range from the coin toss to which quarterback will throw for more yards.
Naturally, there are some fairly off-beat propositions that will be offered, such as how long it takes to perform the National Anthem to the number of songs Bruce Springsteen performs during halftime.
But for all practical purposes, these wagers are fairly tame compared to several others that have been offered in the past. We looked at several of those, as well as gave a bit of background about the explosion in popularity of proposition bets in The Wacky World of Proposition Betting.
Who Do I Bet On?
That's the $64,000 question when it comes to the Super Bowl and we'll try to help you out a bit in that area, as well. We've assembled a pretty respected group of sports betting personalities who give their best bet for the Super Bowl in Super Bowl Betting - Ask the Experts.For those of you want to get involved in the world of proposition betting, professional sports handicapper Mark Franco gives his top proposition bets in Betting the Super Bowl XLIII Propositions.
Remember, to most professional sports bettors, the Super Bowl is little more than another game, just one of 18 games that you can wager on that day. And most will tell you that the bigger the game, the more difficult it is to predict.
Have fun this Super Bowl Sunday, but don't go overboard on your wagers. And most importantly, Good Luck!
