Vegas betting sites are rolling in the money after Chiefs won Super Bowl
The Las Vegas sportsbooks tend to know what they’re doing when it comes to the Super Bowl, and new data from the Nevada Gaming Control Board shows this year was no exception.
More than $154 million was wagered in the state’s 190 sportsbooks for this year’s Super Bowl, which saw the Kansas City Chiefs defeat the San Francisco 49ers 31-20. The amount was the second-highest in the game’s history and an increase from last year’s $145 million.
Vegas sportsbooks won big on those bets by earning $18 million, the gaming control board said. Only 2014’s lopsided Super Bowl between Seattle and Denver awarded Vegas more money.
And as far as that “the house always wins” saying, Vegas sportsbooks have come out on top in the Super Bowl every year dating to 2008, according to the gaming control board’s data.
The Chiefs were 1.5-point favorites over the 49ers and used a 21-point fourth quarter to cover the spread. The 51 points fell short of the over/under total of 53.
Keeping the score under was “critical” in the win for the betting sites, Sunset Station sportsbook director Chuck Esposito told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
“The biggest key for the big win was the fact that it was the favorite and under. On the flip side, having it be the favorite and over would’ve been the worst case,” Esposito said. “There was just an onslaught of over money. There were parlays on both teams and over.”
Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale gave Vegas one of its largest wins, as he put $1 million on the 49ers to win the game, according to Action Network. He bet against the Chiefs in all three of their playoff games, losing $3 million, the website reported.
New Jersey, which is the second-largest sports betting market in the country, saw its sportsbooks lose $4.28 million on this year’s game, according to the Associated Press.
One reason why Vegas was able to win so much money was because of its proximity to San Francisco.
“It was our best scenario,” Caesars Entertainment sportsbook director Bill Sattler told the Review-Journal. “We were real heavy on the Niners money line and a lot of it was from Lake Tahoe.”
Perhaps the biggest swing came on the game’s last possession, with the outcome already out of reach for the 49ers. Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes took a knee on three straight plays, losing 15 yards and dropping his rushing total to 29. His over/under for rushing yards was as high as 36.5.
“That was close to a six-figure swing (in favor of the house),” Jeff Davis, director of trading for Caesars Sportsbook, told ESPN.
And while Mahomes was the favorite to win the Super Bowl MVP, bettors put more money on the underdogs to win the award. Mahomes won MVP after he orchestrated the fourth-quarter comeback.
“The MVP was the biggest prop we’ve ever won,” Nick Bogdanovich, William Hill sportsbook director, told the Los Angeles Times. “And that was a prop you could not even book a few years ago.”
You can already place your bets for next season’s Super Bowl winner. The Chiefs, 49ers and Baltimore Ravens have 7-1 odds to win next year’s title, according to William Hill.