You can bet on that? Welcome to the wacky world of Super Bowl prop bets

LAS VEGAS (WGHP) — The Super Bowl is an annual flagship event in the entertainment year as sports fans and non-sports fans alike flock to see the game, commercials or just attend a party for the food.

With any sports event of this magnitude, gambling opportunities will always be prevalent, but the circumstances behind this Super Bowl between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers have led to a firestorm of some of the wackiest betting opportunities the game has ever seen.

Let’s set the stage for how we got here:

A Super Bowl in Paradise: A Gambler’s Dream

Adding to the chaos already surrounding what will be one of the most-watched events of the year is the prevalence of sports betting that has come to the forefront of American sports culture in recent years.

In a move that truly signifies the cultural shift and embrace of sports betting in American professional sports, this year’s Super Bowl will be held at Allegiant Stadium in Paradise, Nevada.

The unincorporated town of Paradise is generally what most people think of when referring to “Las Vegas.” It’s home to the Las Vegas Strip and most of the attractions tourists travel to see. It is also where the Las Vegas Raiders play.

The Super Bowl LVIII will be the first time that the NFL has ever held the Super Bowl in Las Vegas or the state of Nevada as a whole.

The idea of the NFL voluntarily holding its flagship annual event in a place like Las Vegas which is inextricably linked to gambling was quite far-fetched just a decade ago. As was the idea of Las Vegas being the home to professional sports franchises.

The Vegas Golden Knights NHL expansion franchise got the ball rolling in 2017. They wound up making the Stanley Cup Finals in their inaugural season, proving that professional sports could succeed in Las Vegas. The Knights won the Stanley Cup in June 2023.

Next, the San Antonio Stars moved to Vegas in 2018 and became the Las Vegas Aces. They too have experienced success, making the WNBA Finals in just their second year in town. The team has now won the past two WNBA championships.

The former Oakland Raiders completed their move to Las Vegas in 2020 and now their stadium is hosting the Super Bowl.

The NBA is widely expected to grant Las Vegas an expansion franchise. The league just hosted its first-ever In-Season Tournament, the NBA Cup, in Las Vegas in 2023.

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported in December that Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James “is determined to be at the forefront of a Las Vegas expansion team in the future.”

“The last trophy, the MVP Cup for outstanding play throughout the entire tournament, to a man who quite frankly, there’s nothing else to win in this league. The only thing I can say is, ‘I’m sorry but it doesn’t come with a franchise.’ LeBron James, the MVP,” Silver said.

Major League Baseball’s Oakland Athletics are also expected to relocate to Las Vegas in the coming years.

The Taylor Swift Effect

In addition to the symbolism behind the Super Bowl being held in the cultural center of the gambling world, another cultural phenomenon has entered the picture. That phenomenon is, of course, Taylor Swift and her fanbase of “Swifties.”

Swift and her relationship with the AFC Champion Kansas City Chiefs star tight end Travis Kelce has taken the entertainment world by storm throughout the NFL season and especially the postseason.

Nielsen reported a 7% increase in viewership for the NFL during the 2023 NFL Season. The average of 17.9 million viewers per game was the most the NFL has seen since 2015.

Additionally, there was a 9% increase in female viewership in the regular season, according to Nielsen. This was the highest mark in female viewership since they began to track the data.

The Chiefs Divisional Round game against the Buffalo Bills on Jan. 21 was the most-watched game in the history of the Divisional Round with over 50 million people watching, according to CBS Sports.

That same feat was accomplished again the next week in the AFC Championship Game between the Chiefs and Baltimore Ravens which attracted an average of 55.5 million viewers, the most in the history of the AFC Championship Game.

Those viewership trends are likely to continue into Super Bowl Sunday.

The wacky world of prop betting

With the context behind this Super Bowl established, we can now enter the world of prop betting.

According to Forbes Betting, a prop (or proposition) bet is a type of side wager on parts of a game or event that may have nothing to do with the final outcome.

Typically, most prop bets are at least tangentially related to the outcome of the game or event.

For example, BetMGM has the following props available for Super Bowl LVIII:

• 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy to throw 2+ touchdowns
• Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes to record 294+ total passing and rushing yards
• 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey to record 10+ yards on his first rush
• Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce to record the Chiefs’ first reception

Gamblers can also place what are known as novelty prop bets. These are wagers that sometimes are quite far removed from the typical things that have a large impact on the game.

Going back to BetMGM, here are some of the novelty prop bets available for Super Bowl LVIII:

• Coin toss outcome (heads or tails)
• Color of Gatorade bath
• First team to call a timeout

• Combined touchdown scorer jersey numbers (over/under 121.)
• Jersey number of first touchdown scorer (over/under 22.5)
• Jersey number of last touchdown scorer (over/under 22.5)

DraftKings is even offering Taylor Swift-themed prop bets. Some of those are:

• 22: Any quarter to have 22+ points scored
• Deja Vu: Chiefs to win by exactly 11 points
• Fearless: Brock Purdy 300+ pass yards and 3+ passing touchdowns in a 49ers win
• Fifteen: Patrick Mahomes 15+ rushing yards and 215+ passing yards
• How You Get the Girl: Travis Kelce to score a touchdown in each half
• Mine: Travis Kelce 87+ receiving yards
• Seven: Winning margin to be exactly 7 points
• Shake it Off: 49ers to score first, Chiefs to win
• Today Was a Fairytale: Travis Kelce to score a touchdown and Chiefs to win
• You Belong with Rashee: Travis Kelce or Rashee Rice to score a touchdown in the first half

In the United States, prop bets related to things such as whether or not Taylor Swift will be at the game or how many times will she appear on camera are not legal.

“The general rule of thumb in the U.S. for creating prop bets is that they need to be determined by action on the field and the result shown in the box score,”BetMGM Senior Trader Tristan Davis told USA TODAY. “This makes it difficult to offer prop bets on Taylor Swift since she doesn’t play the game.”

As a result, Taylor Swift-themed prop bets are the closest that die-hard Swifties can get to the action.

Sports Betting in NC

Outside of retail gambling locations in the western part of the state, sports betting is still currently not available in North Carolina.

The current anticipated launch date for mobile sports betting in North Carolina is March 11, right before the NCAA Tournament begins.