There's only one 'Big Game' and odds are millions will watch it
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The 56th Super Bowl will be played on Sunday, a reminder that the gridiron classic is much more than a game.
It’s a spectacle in which millions of Americans participate in some way or another, be that just watching the game or perhaps even taking a sporting chance on the outcome with a wager.
Prior to the legalization of sports betting in Indiana and Illinois, betting a buck a two on the Super Bowl generally amounted to participating in “squares” among family, the office or even the neighborhood gin mill.
All other Super Bowl bets (and there were millions upon millions of dollars of them every year) had to be placed illegally through a source that was in the book business, but not the kind with binders, pages and covers.
Now that sports betting is a legal practice that generates hundreds of millions of dollars in wagers every month through online and brick-and-mortar establishments, there will be a multitude of people taking a sporting chance on the “Big Game” with a cash investment.
The American Gaming Association estimated that for last year’s Super Bowl, 23.2 million Americans wagered an estimated $4.3 billion on the game.
In sports betting parlance, making a “straight bet” (betting on a team to win the game) is known as the “moneyline”. A plus symbol (+) denotes the team as the underdog. A minus sign (-) indicates the team is the favorite.
One of the most popular forms of wagering on football games is using the point spread. They can be tricky. For example, if you bet using a spread of, say, 3 ½ points, your team would have to win by at least four points for you to collect.
Sports gamblers also like to bet on what is called the “over/under”. Book makers calculate what they believe will be the total points scored in the game by both teams. They set a figure which allows you to bet the points scored will be under the number, or points scored will be over the number.
And, there are the “prop” (proposition bets). This is a whole different ball game. Bookmakers get as creative as they can by establishing proposition bets that you can wager will happen or wager will not happen.
Prop bets have risen in abundance as well as curiosity in recent years, including betting on how long it will take the vocalist to sing the Star-Spangled Banner, or betting on whether the coin toss will be heads or tails.
Of course, there are a multitude of prop bets that revolve around game statistics such as interceptions, touchdown passes, field goals, the first team to score, passing yards, rushing yards, etc.
Wagering online, which is legal in both Indiana and Illinois, means that you will also be able to make bets while the game is being played. You can be certain the sportsbooks will offer up a vast menu of in-game prop bets as the action unfolds.
This new luxury of putting money on the line in sporting events brings with it the possibility of letting the game “get out of hand” if you fail to exercise responsible behavior.
Sports books have developed a high-profile presence in the electronic media with first-time sign-up offers and bonuses.
Members of the media, especially radio and television, give credibility to betting on sporting events by interjecting “odds talk”, something that would have been unthinkable in the not-too-distant past.
The barrier that separated sports from legal betting has long been torn down, and betting on the outcome of games has become a fact of life not only for fans but mainstream citizens who would have never even pondered making a sports bet until the legal flood gates opened.
The most important thing to remember is to have fun watching the “Big Game” whereever you may be. If a wager here or there will enhance the enjoyment, by all means go for it.
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Opinions are solely those of the writer. Reach him at jgbrokopp1@gmail.com.
