Paul Simon came up with 50 ways to leave your lover but there probably are more than 300 ways to wager on Super Bowl XXXIX in Jacksonville, Florida, February 6th.
Bet on the side, Clyde. Choose your own spread, Fred. How 'bout a sack, Mack, or the coin toss, Ross? Make a key pick, Rick.
It was nearly 40 years ago when National Football League Commissioner Pete Rozelle and his fellow visionaries developed the idea of the Super Bowl to define the League's championship game. The group probably never realized that the one thing that consistently would be super--no matter how boring, how one-sided or how poorly played the game--was the scope and amount of wagering on it.
These days, handles of more than $70 million on the game are common in Nevada with estimates that more than $2 billion is wagered at betting locations around the globe.
The magical $50 million Super Bowl wagering barrier first was broken in Nevada in 1992, thanks in no small part to Michael Gaughan, as much of a visionary and a lot more of a gambler than Rozelle and his starched and buttoned down cronies. Gaughan, the owner of the Barbary Coast and Gold Coast Hotels, willingly posted a "middle," the very bane of every bookmaker's existence, on Super Bowl XXVI.
Gaughan, whose career in gaming began with a stint as a dishwasher at the Flamingo Hotel at age 13 in 1956, offered the Buffalo Bills at +7 1/2 and the Washington Redskins at -6 1/2. Elsewhere, from Las Vegas to Lake Tahoe, the number was a rock-solid 7.
Not surprisingly, bettors from both coasts flocked to both Coasts. At the Barbary, the line stretched from the overworked clerks at the betting windows to the overflowing cocktail waitresses serving customers at the blackjack tables. What's more, wager $20 and Gaughan threw in a free tee shirt, as well.
Gaughan's grand gamble, which resulted in his hotels handling about $10 million, or roughly one-fifth of the state's total, a huge number for a pair of "locals" casinos, paid off when the Redskins subdued the Bills by anything but the dreaded 7-point margin, 37-24.
But was the risk a wise one? Statistically, yes.
If you wanted to lay a half-point less on the Redskins or take a half-point more on the Bills in Super Bowl XXVI you had to lay 6/5 to get -6 1/2 or +7 1/2 at the Barbary Coast or Gold Coast. That minor deviation from the long-standing traditional bet/win ratio of 11/10 increased the house's theoretical hold percentage, or vigorish, from 4.55 percent to 8.33 percent for Gaughan. Since NFL games are decided by a margin of exactly seven points just 7.3 percent of the time, Gaughan's bold move, which was widely criticized by other bet takers and hotel owners at the time, made numerical sense.
However, being on firm arithmetic ground reportedly didn't stop Gaughan from making a halftime pact with God in which he promised to never again depart from standard bookmaking practices if he were allowed to be extricated from his $10 million hook.
Gaughan apparently kept his promise when, a year later, with the Dallas Cowboys listed as a consensus 7-point favorite over the Bills, bettors were offered -7 or +7 but no "middle."
Even with Gaughan maintaining his sideline vow, bettors should more than enough attractive wagering options on this year's Super Bowl. That's especially true at
The Greek Sportsbook where the web site is believed to have set a world record with some 300 betting propositions last year.
Oddly enough, the first payoff on Super Bowl XXXIX will happen before the opening kickoff and the last, way after the final gun (or is it a whistle?) sounds. That's because gamblers can wager on which team will win the coin toss and whether the sphere will land on heads or tails, two propositions that will be decided before the game even starts. As for a wager on something that will happen after the game is over, how about a bet on which player will be named Super Bowl MVP?
The Greek Sportsbook also will offer propositions on whether there'll be scoring in the last two minutes of the first half to odds on unusual occurrences, such as overtime or a safety. There are pointspread props and gimmicks matching up individual players on passing, rushing and receiving yards. You can bet over or under on sacks, field goals and interceptions or who will be the first player to score a touchdown, the first team to punt, or whether either team will be shut out. Bettors also can choose their own pointspreads and totals--with appropriate money line odds--as well as wagering by quarters. There's even a prop on which coach will be the first to challenge a ruling and whether that challenge will result in the call being upheld or overturned.
But if you want a "middle," you'll just have to find one on your own.
