The Super Bowl is the NFL’s championship game and there are a lot of factors that differentiate it from simply a game to an incredible spectacle. There’s the Super Bowl commercials, the halftime show and – of course – the epic Super Bowl props. Once the Super Bowl matchup is known, oddsmakers work overtime to create as betting lines as possible. Of course, there’s the spread and moneyline for the game, which are the lines that you’d bet if you had a prediction on the winner of the game. But the oddsmakers also craft a huge menu of propositional bets – or prop bets, as they are known – to give you other options to bet on.
If you’re new to Super Bowl props, then we’ll walk you through them, so you understand both how to bet them and what they are:
How To Bet Super Bowl Props
Before you understand what prop bets are, you have to understand how to read the betting lines. When you’re looking at props, you’ll always find the bet as well as a price right next to it. Let’s use the following example:
Randy Moss Receptions
Over 3.5 -250
Under 3.5 +200
In this case, if you think Randy Moss will have more than 3.5 receptions – in other words, he’ll have four or more catches – then you would choose the over. There’s a line of -250 and what that negative sign denotes is how much you’d have to bet to win $100. In this case, it’s $250. On the flip side, if you bet on the under, projecting that he’d have three catches or less, the positive sign indicates that you’d win $200 for every $100 you bet. Of course, you don’t have to bet exactly $250 or $100, but that gives you an idea of what the prices are and how they work.
Super Bowl Team Props
If you can’t figure out which side to bet in the Super Bowl, you’ll have a whole host of team props that still gives you an opportunity to win some money on the game without deciding the winner.
You’ll find team props for most NFL games on a weekly basis but when it comes to the Super Bowl, you can literally bet on anything. Teams props can vary from whether or not a team will score within a certain period of time, whether they’ll hit a two-point conversion or whether they’ll register a safety. Some other options include which will be their highest scoring quarter and whether or not they’ll score in the final two minutes of a half.
If you follow the teams closely, you should have a good feel for their style and strategy. That’s when you can sift through the odds and find some good value.
Super Bowl Player Props
Super Bowl player props offer you another way to find some value on the betting lines without directly picking a winner in the game. These are all related to how different players will be performing in the Super Bowl. Some examples of this would be picking who the MVP of the game will be, how many touchdowns a certain quarterback will pass for or how many yards a running back might accrue.
You’ll also find a lot of head-to-head player props, which pit players into matchups. For example, you might see the two starting running backs be in a prop and then you can bet on who will rush for more yards.
If you’re expecting the game to be low-scoring or a defensive struggle, then you might find some value betting on the under for a lot of offensive players. Or if you think that due to the matchup, the teams might use a specific strategy, you could bet props accordingly. For example, if you thought the New England Patriots would be more inclined to run the ball on Super Bowl Sunday, you could be under for Tom Brady’s passing yards or completions. This gives you an idea of how props can be a smart play come Super Bowl Sunday.
Wacky Super Bowl Props
Although there is a huge array of regular prop bets for the Super Bowl, one of the aspects of the game that makes it so entertaining is the large selection of wacky bets. Sportsbook oddsmakers spend hours upon hours to come up with betting lines for almost every aspect of the football game and even some that aren’t even directly related to the outcome of the game. That’s what makes the lead up to the Super Bowl so much fun as bettors have so many options to choose from.
Wacky props can range from anything related to the halftime show, to cross-sport props (Super Bowl performance versus an NBA game that day) to something the referees might do (like overturning a replay or flagging someone for an excessive touchdown celebration. You’ll even see a betting line on how many times the play-by-play announcer might mention something.
For example, when the Denver Broncos were led to the Super Bowl by Peyton Manning in his final season, the oddsmakers at BetDSI set a line on how many times the announcers would talk about Manning potentially retiring. Another example was Tom Brady and the mentions of Deflategate.
You can also bet on what the halftime performer will wear, how they’ll enter the arena or whether they’ll be airborne, like Lady Gaga. Some other creative options might be related to what or if President Donald Trump tweets during the game or which player will be shown first on the broadcast during the national anthem.
The options are truly endless, which is part of what makes the Super Bowl such a spectacle.
Most Popular Super Bowl Props
The most popular Super Bowl props are often the wacky ones. That’s because the Super Bowl is a sporting mega event and hordes of casual fans – who don’t normally follow football too closely – come out and watch. Those types of people usually want to get into the action and while they might not know who wins, they’ll have some opinions on the wacky happenings in the game.
It also helps that these types of props often have celebrities, politics or entertainment tied in, so they get talked about a lot around water coolers and in news broadcasts. For example, if there’s a Donald Trump-related prop, it’s something that can be mentioned on CNN or FOX News, which then gets talked about and bet exponentially more.
Some of the most popular Super Bowl props are betting on the coin toss, betting on which color the Gatorade bath will be, who the MVP will first thank in his post-game interview and how long it will take to sing the national anthem.