Tom Brady, Bucs Defense Deliver Another Super Bowl Win For Sportsbooks
'Under' was best decision for multiple books
It should be no surprise at this point when Tom Brady wins a Super Bowl. It's even less surprising that multiple Las Vegas sportsbooks reported winning outcomes behind their counters.
Circa, Golden Nugget, South Point, Westgate and Wynn all reported to NESN that their books turned a profit in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' 31-9 win over the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LV.
The Chiefs were a three-point favorite and bettors flocked to the betting windows and mobile apps to back the Super Bowl LIV champs. Todd Bowles' vaunted defense had other ideas.
Nevada books have only had two losing Super Bowls since 1991.
"We won very high six figures on the game," Westgate SuperBook sportsbook director John Murray told NESN. "But we did give back several hundred thousand on the futures and the AFC vs. NFC prop."
The best result for the books was the game staying "Under" for total points. Bettors certainly felt the disappointment when the two teams combined for only 40 points. The total fluctuated between 55.5 and 56 for most of last week.
"We need the Under bigly," Murray told NESN hours before kickoff.
"The Under was huge," Golden Nugget executive sportsbook director Tony Miller told NESN. "We had tons of Over bets and lots of parlays tied to the Over. We got slammed with Kansas City money all weekend too. The Chiefs not covering was good for business."
As you can imagine, bettors fired copious amounts of "Over" and "Yes" bets on player props involving Patrick Mahomes, Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce. Mahomes settled "Under" on passing yards and touchdown passes, Hill failed to reach his number on receiving yards and Kansas City as a team failed to score a touchdown.
"Player props carried the day for us," Murray said. "Mid-six figure winner. The Chiefs player props were especially great."
FanDuel Sportsbook reported Kelce was the most bet player in 11 of their 12 operational states for the anytime touchdown betting market. Mississippi bettors actually made more bets on Rob Gronkowski and one FanDuel player bet $892.80 that Gronk would score two touchdowns at 14-to-1. The total payout was just shy of $14,000.
The largest reported bet in the United States came from Houston businessman Jim McIngvale, aka "Mattress Mack." He bet $3.46 million on Tampa Bay +3.5 at DraftKings Sportsbook.
McIngvale's total payout was $6.18 million.
