it was another million-dollar win for sportsbooks after Sunday’s Super Bowl 54. Many oddsmakers said they needed the Kansas City Chiefs to cover, and the under to hit for them to record a profit.
That is exactly what happened, as Kansas City covered the 1.5-point spread, defeating San Francisco, 31-20. The over/under, which had been bet up from an opening of 51.5 points to as high as 55 at some locations, went under.
Jeff Stoneback, Mirage sportsbook director in Las Vegas, told the Review-Journal that it was a dream scenario for the facility.
“We did very well. I know for a fact that it’s our best Super Bowl since at least 2008,†Stoneback said. “We had the best-case scenario for us, Chiefs and under.â€
The Mirage wasn’t the only location bragging about the day. Tony DiTommaso, CT Technology director of risk operations, told Covers.com that there sportsbooks had a million dollar win in Super Bowl 54.
“Everything was good,†DiTommaso said. “We approached a 7-figure win. For us, it was pretty decent. No complaints. Well, maybe one complaint. The game staying under helped, but that late Chiefs score really hurt us. A monster swing, almost $200,000 because it put the second half over.”
Big Bettors Help Million-Dollar Win for Sportsbooks
Though there weren’t many million-dollar bets at sportsbooks for Super Bowl 54, the ones that did make large wagers got crushed. One anonymous gambler, wagered $2.1 million at the Bellagio and lost it all but $50,000. His bets included $1 million on the 49ers, and $1 million on the over.
Houston furniture store owner Jim “Mattress Mack†McIngvale’s bad luck continued on Sunday. McIngvale, who had lost $13 million on the Astros in the 2019 World Series, lost another $1 million on the Super Bowl. He took the 49ers on the moneyline. He also lost $2 million betting against the Chiefs in their two playoff games leading up to the Super Bowl.
Large Odds Prop Bets Pay Off
While the public was getting killed by betting the over, there were a few successes with Super Bowl prop bets. The first was tight end Kyle Juszczyk scoring first for the 49ers. Juszczyk was a +1500 to be the first San Francisco player to score a touchdown. He was also at +600 to score at any point in the game.
The second was whether the game would be tied at halftime. That paid off at 9/1. The other longshot that came in was Kansas City’s Bashaud Breeland intercepting a pass. He picked off San Francisco quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo and was a +550 to have an interception.
Betting on Mahomes Profitable
Backing Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes turned out to be successful with gamblers on several prop bets. The biggest was Mahomes scoring the first touchdown of the game. That had big 18/1 odds. Mahomes scoring a rushing touchdown also paid well at +300.
Passing, two bets came through. The first was would Mahomes throw two TDs in any quarter. He did in the fourth, and the payoff was +425. The other was the amount of passing yards he would have. He threw for 286 yards, and the 281 to 300 yard passing prop bet was an 8/1 pick.
Even when he made a mistake it worked for bettors. The prop bet of whether he would throw a touchdown or interception first, paid +280 for the interception.
Stat of the Week
The team leading at the end of the first quarter in the Super Bowl has won 71.8 percent of Super Bowls, including the last six, and eight of the last nine. Kansas City lead 7-3 after the first quarter of Super Bowl 54.