Tom Brady is a champion again, as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeated the Kansas City Chiefs 31-9 to win Super Bowl LV.
Tampa Bay winning and the game going under the total of 56 was a good result for many sportsbooks.
One such book was PointsBet, who prior to kickoff, had 90% of point spread handle on the Chiefs -3, and 66% of the money on the OVER.
“Despite Tom Brady being on the other team, every single person was backing the Chiefs at -3,” Patrick Eichner, Director of Communications at PointsBet, said. “Obviously the OL and the other things the Chiefs had going on seemed to make a bigger difference than the public anticipated.”
The Bucs winning also made them one of the biggest preseason longshots to ever win the Super Bowl. Last February, Tampa Bay opened up in the 65-1 range at some books.
One bettor, Mark DeRosa, believed that Tampa Bay would land Brady, which led him to betting Bucs futures big. DeRosa and a friend Zack White put down approximately $20,000 on Tampa Bay at around 65-1 to win the Super Bowl and 35-1 to win the NFC.
Needless to say, the gambler was ecstatic at last night's final result.
Mattress Mack Wins
Houston-based furniture chain owner Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale, who is known for making large sized bets, had placed the biggest reported wager on Super Bowl LV. McIngvale bet $3.46 million on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers +3.5 through DraftKings Sportsbook in Colorado.
After Tampa Bay’s victory last night, the betting man will net a cool $2.72 million on his wager.
It should be pointed out that the businessman routinely has used the betting market to mitigate risk on sales promotions he has done at his furniture store.
This year’s winnings will offset the cost of his Gallery Furniture Super Bowl promotion:
Customers who spent $3,000 or more on select mattresses and got them delivered before the game will receive them for free.
CBS Drops Ball on Gatorade
The color of the annual Gatorade shower has become a fun and popular prop bet. Once the game was over, many (myself included) were waiting anxiously for the Bucs to douse head coach Bruce Arians, but then panic set in. I didn’t see it happen, so I quickly hit rewind to make sure I didn’t miss it. Turns out, CBS had cut away from it.
Luckily for gamblers, a Twitter hero always emerges. A video went viral a few minutes after the game showing the Gatorade color to be blue. Photos from the game confirmed it.
The odds on the bath being blue were +800 at BetMGM, and their most notable bet on the prop was a $100 to win $800. Thanks to my daughter, I picked up a cool $80 myself on the bet.
Coin Toss
The coin toss is another exotic prop bet that has become popular over the recent years. The simplicity and promptness of the outcome heads the list of reasons why.
The toss’ result was heads and the most notable bet at BetMGM was for $6,666 to win $6,349 on Heads (-105).
Other notable nuggets
Every Super Bowl, people love betting the overs when it comes to prop bets. This year it seemed everyone was on the various Tyreek Hill overs and the Tom Brady rushing yards over .5 yards bet. But, due to the low scoring nature of the game, props as a whole resulted in more favorable outcomes for the books.
The public did win on a couple though, thanks to Tampa Bay's Bad Boys for Life combo. Rob Gronkowski’s first touchdown bet hit big for FanDuel Sportsbook players. The book paid out $3.1 million to customers that selected the tight end in the first TD scorer market and paid out another $650k to customers when Gronkowski scored his second touchdown.
Tom Brady to win Super Bowl MVP was also a popular bet among gamblers. At BetMGM, Brady received the most tickets to win the award.
PointsBet also had similar Brady Super Bowl MVP liability.
“Devin White backers have a valid argument,” Eichner said. “But, if the Bucs were going to win it, it was a forgone conclusion for us that we would be giving some back to Tom Brady to win MVP.”
As for next year, it looks like most books are opening the Chiefs as the favorites to win it all, followed by the Bucs and Green Bay Packers.
“The Chiefs open as betting favorites to win Super Bowl 56. Historically, the runner-up does not return to the big game but none of those teams had Patrick Mahomes," Jason Scott, VP of Trading at BetMGM said. “It is projected that as many as 18 NFL teams will enter the season with a different quarterback so we expect to see plenty of movement in this market before kickoff of next season.”
Continuity is key.
This wraps up our NFL recaps, which have been fun to write. See you all next season!