As we get ready for the biggest sporting event America has to offer in a few hours, I have been watching the sports betting sites for the past few days and have seen the spread change a few times but never by a great deal. With just over 90 minutes before kickoff all "hard bets" have been called off and KC has landed as favorites by 1.5 points. While Super Bowl games are normally very close in the spreads it is actually quite rare that one team be favored by so few points.
What this means is that KC has to win the game by more than 1 point in order for your bet to pay off. I have $100 dollars on the game in favor of the Chiefs and this is the exact amount of money that I won from a total season of betting against my real favorite team, the Carolina Panthers.
There is some important information in these charts but let me explain it a bit for you anyway.
On the moneyline the Chiefs are -120 favorites: What this means is that if you were to bet $1000 you would get 1000 minus 120 dollars if Kansas City wins. Philly is a +100 underdog so that means that if you bet $1000 on Philly and they win, you will win $1100. Simple enough, right?
Point Spread is more fun to bet on normally because a team not only has to win, but they have to win by a certain amount. Obviously it isn't possible to win by a half point so this is only thrown in there so that it is impossible to draw or tie.
Another bet that people like to make is the Total Points or as it is often known the "over/under." This is set at 48.5 points and it refers to the total number of points that are scored by both teams combined. You can guess if they are going to score "over" that number or "under' that number and if you are correct it pays out 1:1 so $20 bet will win you $20. This is globally pretty standard as far as I know.
It is nice to see that over 80% of all bets on total points are taking the "over" because this means that there are people out there that likely know a lot more about the two teams involved than you or I do that are confident that this is going to be a high-scoring game, which is always fun.
There was a Super Bowl not that long ago where the halftime score between the Pats and the Rams was 3-0 and there was a joke that with Maroon-5 playing the halftime show, the band was technically winning the game at that point.
Defense is extremely important, no doubt about that, but I find defensive games to be extremely boring and in my memory Super Bowl 53 was the most uneventful Super Bowl of my entire lifetime.
I will be at my local bar for this event and such as huge crowd is expected that we had to put at $20 deposit on seats at the bar in order to have them held. They will only hold the seat until 5 minutes after kickoff after which point your deposit is forfeit and the seats will be given away. If you turn up on time and let's be fair here, there is no reason other than the frigid Chicago cold that you shouldn't, you get your $20 applies to your bar tab so why not have this system?
It should be a really good game and I am looking forward to it. I know that a lot of you are pulling for Philadelphia but I have a history with that team's fans that disables me from ever rooting for them. Let's go Chiefs!