Gamblers Betting Near Record Amount on Super Bowl
Published at | Updated at
Larry French/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — Gamblers are betting what could be a record amount of money on Super Bowl XLVII.
It’s still too early to predict exactly how much money will be riding on the line come Feb. 3, but experts say the total being wagered in Las Vegas alone could approach the all-time Super Bowl record — $94.9 million — set back in 2006.
“It’s an intriguing match up because the coaches are brothers,” says Jay Kornegay, vice president of Las Vegas’ Superbook, the world’s largest race and sports betting book. “The Ravens, the hottest team, may not have a large fan base, but they certainly add an intriguing element. There’s the fact Ray Lewis is retiring. It’s one of the better teams versus the hottest team.”
It’s hard to predict how much money ultimately will be bet, says Kornegay, because about 80 percent of all wagers get made in the last few days before the game. Still, he says, he’s expecting this year’s Super Bowl to come very close to the record — probably between $92 million and $93 million.
And that figure, he says, represents “a drop in the bucket” compared to total U.S. betting on the outcome, almost all of which is illegal. The only legal place to place a Super Bowl bet in the U.S. is Nevada, though New Jersey is working to legalize sports betting at its 12 Atlantic City casinos despite a federal ban.
The line in Las Vegas right now, Kornegay says, has the 49ers a 4-point favorite. That will likely change as the bookmakers attempt to even out the betting before game time.
As in past Super Bowls, so-called proposition bets — wagers on such specific things as how big the point spread will be, how many touchdown passes will be thrown by a given player, or whether either team will score in the first five-and-a-half minutes — are extremely popular, and can represent, Kornegay says, anywhere from 10 percent to as much as 50 percent of total betting on the game.
Although Superbook will eventually offer 20 pages of such betting possibilities — some 300 in all — Nevada bookies are restricted to offering only those propositions whose outcome can be documented on the field of play. So, for instance, Superbook cannot take bets on how long it will take Alicia Keys to sing the National Anthem.
“In the state of Nevada,” Kornegay says, “we can’t take the real crazy ones.”
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio