\nBy Case Keefer (contact)
\n\tMonday, Jan. 20, 2014 | 2 a.m.<\/p>\n
\tWithin 15 minutes of number being posted, Denver goes from small underdog to the favorite in Super Bowl 48<\/p>\n
\tOdds are Las Vegas will never play host to a Super Bowl.<\/p>\n
\tThat\u2019s fine, because our city stages the game within the game on an annual basis. The NFL can try to deny the role gambling has played in making it the country\u2019s most popular sports league all it wants, but it\u2019s a futile exercise this time of year.<\/p>\n
\tPrognosticating the Super Bowl through the lens of the betting line is as much of a tradition as debating quarterbacks and judging commercials. And the topic is most enveloping locally, where everyone seems to have an opinion.<\/p>\n
\tTo usher in the 48th straight year of betting on the Super Bowl, here are 10 facts on the history of the betting line on the big game.<\/p>\n
\t\u2022 Just because it\u2019s for a championship doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s one of the more evenly matched games of the year. On the contrary, the average Super Bowl spread over a near half-century sample is 7.5 points. That\u2019s a safety higher than the mean regular-season point spread of 5.5 points during the past five years.<\/p>\n
\t\u2022 The favorite has gone 26-19-2 against the spread throughout Super Bowl history. Eight times the betting underdog has won the Super Bowl outright. That means the team Super Bowl oddsmakers rate as superior has won 72 percent of the time.<\/p>\n
\t\u2022 The betting favorites\u2019 dominance in the biggest game of the year is beginning to regress, however, as the underdog has won outright in four of the past six years and covered without taking the victory in a fifth. The former group includes each of the past two champions, as the Baltimore Ravens were plus-4.5 against the San Francisco 49ers last year while the New York Giants got 2.5 points versus the New England Patriots in 2012.<\/p>\n
\t\u2022 New York Jets quarterback Joe Namath\u2019s fabled guarantee that his team would beat the Baltimore Colts before Super Bowl 3 continues to hold ground 45 years later. The Jets remain the biggest underdog, at plus-18, to ever win the Super Bowl by beating the Colts 16-7.<\/p>\n
\t\u2022 The largest spread in Super Bowl history was a half-point higher than Namath\u2019s, though. The San Francisco 49ers gave 18.5 points against the San Diego Chargers in 1995\u2019s Super Bowl 24. The 49ers were covering by the second quarter and cruised to a 49-26 victory.<\/p>\n
\t\u2022 The 49ers\u2019 blowout win was one of only two times in the past 20 years that Nevada sports books lost money on the Super Bowl. The more famous occasion came in 2008 when bettors took the 12-point underdog New York Giants to depose the undefeated New England Patriots straight up at odds as high as 5-to-1. The Giants\u2019 stunning 17-14 victory handed casinos a record $2.57 million loss statewide.<\/p>\n
\t\u2022 Well, that\u2019s the record since the Gaming Control Board started keeping track. Veteran bookmakers will still say Super Bowl 13 in 1979 was the worst ever, referring to the scenario as \u201cBlack Sunday.\u201d The Pittsburgh Steelers opened at minus-4.5 but were bet down to 3.5 against the popular Dallas Cowboys. They ended up winning 35-31, meaning sports books had to pay off both early Cowboys bets and late Steelers money.<\/p>\n
\t\u2022 The record for sports books\u2019 most profitable Super Bowl came in 2005 when the New England Patriots beat the Philadelphia Eagles 24-21 but failed to cover the 7-point spread. Casinos pocketed $15.43 million that year, or 17 percent of the $90.76 million betting handle.<\/p>\n
\t\u2022 The $98.93 million wagered in Nevada on last year\u2019s game was the most in the history of the Super Bowl. The uptick snapped a seven-year drought sports books endured without setting a new high mark.<\/p>\n
\t\u2022 The 49ers may have failed to win or cash last year, but the franchise owns the most lopsided cover in Super Bowl history for its work in 1990. The 49ers gave the Broncos 12 points, which proved not nearly enough in a 55-10 fleecing.<\/p>\n
\t\u2022 Over\/under point totals have posted significantly more balanced results than the spread in the Super Bowl. In 47 games, the over has come in 24 times to the under\u2019s 23. The two have alternated in each of the past six years, with the over 48 cashing in last year\u2019s 34-31 thriller.<\/p>\n
Posted by:<\/strong> TommyC on January 21, 2014, 2:32 am<\/p>\n By Case Keefer (contact) Monday, Jan. 20, 2014 | 2 a.m. Within 15 minutes of number being posted, Denver goes from small underdog to the favorite in Super Bowl 48 Odds are Las Vegas will never play host to a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-other-games"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6835\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}