Unfortunately, Super Bowl LV was not one fans will continue to rewatch over the years. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers claimed their second Super Bowl title in team history with relative ease, taking down the Chiefs 31-9.
While the first half was entertaining, plenty of Kansas City miscues allowed Tampa Bay and quarterback Tom Brady to come out on top.
The Bucs never relinquished the lead and didn’t allow Patrick Mahomes’ side to ever get in the end zone.
Although the game wasn’t as thrilling as it could have been, Super Bowl LV provided more than enough betting opportunities to make the action interesting.
With a wide variety of betting markets and props offered at West Virginia sportsbooks, bettors were likely glued to the game.
Let’s take a look at some of the largest bets accepted for the big game and break down the results from a bunch of the best props available.
Super Bowl LV betting
This year’s Super Bowl saw significantly more betting action than a year ago. According to Legal Sports Report, the GeoComply online sports betting data tracked that there was more than triple the wagering this year compared to last.
Over the course of the weekend, there were over 32 million online transactions at mobile sportsbooks. That figure increased an incredible 236% from the around 9.5 million last season.
Of course, part of this jump-up stems from the fact that there are seven new markets in the US that hadn’t launched yet in 2020.
Even though we might not know the exact amount of money bet on Sunday’s Super Bowl until the spring, PlayUSA projected that wagers would exceed $500 million. There was around $300 million bet last year.
Aside from receiving a large volume of wagers, sportsbooks also saw several noteworthy bets that involved millions.
The biggest documented bet of the game was a $3.5 million wager with DraftKings Sportsbook. This bettor put the seven figures down on Tampa Bay +3.5 points and most certainly enjoyed the game.
DraftKings wasn’t the only WV online sports betting app that generated some head-turning wagers. BetMGM Sportsbook was also in on taking a few.
The online sportsbook had two separate bets of $2.5 million and $1 million.
A bettor placed $2.5 million on Kansas City’s moneyline at odds of -165. Another took the opposite, betting $1 million on the Bucs’ moneyline of +135.
Others didn’t particularly trust the odds of the Super Bowl, so they decided to get creative. A BetMGM customer placed a $1 million teaser that included Tampa Bay +3 and the total over 50.
Despite the Bucs easily covering by winning outright, the total never got close to going over because of the Chiefs’ measly nine points. This tease would have earned the bettor about $770,000.
Super Bowl prop betting breakdown
As always, prop betting was extremely popular for this year’s Super Bowl. Since the majority of WV online sports betting apps gave bettors lots of prop options, there was excitement until the very finish.
One of the most common bets and earlier ones to be decided was the outcome of the game’s coin toss.
Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce won the opening toss with a call of heads.
Although most people probably only threw a few dollars at a prop that involves the flipping of a coin, there were some exceptions.
The biggest winning bet for heads came at William Hill Sportsbook. It accepted a wager of $12,500 on the prop.
The tails option saw a little more attention. There was an additional $12,500 bet on tails at William Hill, while FanDuel Sportsbook took a $30,000 wager on the losing side.
After the toss, all eyes were on which player would score the opening touchdown of the game. Even though they were in a position to run, the Bucs threw it to Rob Gronkowski on a shallow crossing route.
Gronk actually ran behind the line of scrimmage as if he was in motion after the ball was snapped. The play’s innovation and Brady’s quality play-action fake allowed the big tight end to waltz into the end zone untouched.
While his odds varied for the opening score, they were around +1800 at sportsbooks. This means that just a $10 bet would have won $180.
One BetMGM customer did better than most. Their $450 wager on Gronkowski to score first won over $8,000.
The color of the Gatorade is another fun prop that many were interested in. Obviously, bettors were forced to watch until the final seconds ticked off the clock to see what color drink would be poured over Tampa’s head coach Bruce Arians.
To the surprise of many, the Gatorade was blue.
Prior to the Super Bowl, blue was considered an underdog at +700, with only purple having longer odds.
At DraftKings, just 11% of the bets and 13% of the money wagered on this prop were on blue.
Looking ahead to 2022
It is never too early to start looking ahead to the next NFL season. There should be plenty of player movement in the offseason, but that won’t stop some bettors from getting their action down.
Currently, DraftKings WV Sportsbook shows the following odds on which team will lift the Lombardi Trophy in 2022:
- Kansas City Chiefs +550
- Green Bay Packers +900
- Tampa Bay Bucs +900
- Baltimore Ravens +1200
- Buffalo Bills +1200
- Los Angeles Rams +1300
- San Francisco 49ers +1400
- Cleveland Browns +2000
- New Orleans Saints +2000
- Seattle Seahawks +2200
- Indianapolis Colts +2500
- Miami Dolphins +2500
- Tennessee Titans +2800
- Dallas Cowboys +3000
