Most Nevada sportsbooks showed a win with the Buccaneers 38-9 win over the Chiefs (-3) in Super Bowl 55, despite large losses in futures and the Bucs money-line which closed at a consensus of +140.
A few books reported a larger handle than last season’s Super Bowl despite less future handle because of being closed for several weeks during the initial stages of the pandemic, and also fewer people on game day because of COVID-19 restrictions.
“It was a decent day for us, under was the best for us, said Nevada’s BetMGM sportsbook director Jeff Stoneback. “The props turned out okay as well, but we lost seven-figures in Super Bowl futures.”
Quite a few people had large bets placed all over Las Vegas taking 50 and 60-to-1 odds before Tom Brady was announced as his destination on March 19 where most books dropped down to 14-to-1 odds after.
“It was a very solid day for us,” said Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook VP Jay Kornegay. “We did well in three-fourths of the main categories. We did well on the point-spread, total, and props. The Bucs money-line was the only negative but we’re not complaining. We’ll take that every year.”
“It was a satisfying day,” he said. “Handle was almost exactly the number we posted last year despite the future pool being well below last year (pandemic). We actually wrote more on this year’s game than we did last year.
William Hill’s 100-plus sportsbooks in Nevada had the same story as most other books.
“We lost on futures, lost on the money-line, but won the total, side, and won a little on the props, “ said William Hill’s director of trading Nick Bogdanovich. “It was a solid day with a monster handle.”
Sounds like a Nevada state record for handle ($158 million) will be challenged? Maybe?
Stoneback had unforeseen issues occur on Sunday that went beyond the game. Technology let his team down at the worst moment.
“We were down from about 10 minutes to kickoff until 9:30 pm (PT) and while most of the people affected were understanding about the situation but there were a few that were very vocal about being unhappy and not getting paid right after the game,” Stoneback said.
It’s the most helpless feeling as the boss of a book when the system shuts down and not knowing how to fix it. Magnify the feeling times 100 on Super Bowl day.
The good news for Stoneback and the MGM books on the strip was that they didn’t have their usual Super Bowl crowd.
“The Mirage had only 47% occupancy on Saturday night,” he said. “We have more people staying with us for Valentine’s Day weekend next week.”
The results of not having as much over-the-counter cash coming in on Saturday and Sunday made Stoneback a bit skeptical of setting a Nevada Super Bowl handle record.
However, they had bigger bets this season than 2020 such as $2.3 million bet on the Bucs +3.5 (-115), $500,000 bet on the Chiefs money-line, and on game day had another $2.5 million on the Chiefs money-line as well as $1 million teaser on the Bucs to over (+9, 50) which lost.
That’s over $6 million on handle alone on four different bets. That’s some huge action. I was much more optimistic of them helping break a state record than Stoneback was.
Nevada Gaming Control will announce how the state did later Monday evening.
All the books stayed unified in not moving below -3 to -2.5 and the under (56), which the sharps bet down early from 57, helped every book in beating parlay risk.
WILLIAM HILL SUPER BOWL 55 MARKETS & RESULTS
For bettors who used William Hill as their operator for Super Bowl 55, here are some great highlights from their handle on Sunday.
Tom Brady was available at 9/5 (+180) odds to win Super Bowl 55 MVP. Brady was the most popular choice for winning MVP among bettors at William Hill Sports Books in both total dollars wagered (21%) and unique tickets wagered (10%). A William Hill Nevada customer netted $9,000 after placing $5,000 on Brady to win the award.
Along with the TB12 connection, here are some other popular Super Bowl 55 prop markets that paid out on Sunday at WH.
- Chiefs to score exactly 9 Points: 150/1 (+15000)
- Chiefs NO Touchdown(s) scored: 60/1 (+6000).
- Byron Pringle as Chief with First Reception: 25/1 (+2500).
- 19 to 24 Buccaneers exact magin of victory: 25/1 (+2500).
- Gronkowski to score 2 or more Touchdowns: 16/1 (+1600).
- Mahomes to NOT have a Passing Touchdown: 15/1 (+1500).
- Gronkowski to score First Touchdown 14/1 (+1400).
- Buccaneers to score exactly 31 Points: 14/1 (+1400).
- Buccaneers to cover altenate spread of Bucaneers -14.5: 7/1 (+700).
- Gronkowski to score First Touchdown for Buccaneers: 6/1 (+600).
- Butker to score First Points: 5/1 (+500).
- 44 to 49 Yards Distance of First Made Field Goal: 4/1 (+400).
- Yes on at least one scoreless Quarter: +380.
- 81 to 99 is the Jersey Number of First TD: +320.
- Mahomes to throw an INT before a Passing TD: +310.
- Godwin as Buccaneer with First Reception: 16/5 (+320).
- Brady to have exactly 3 Passing Touchdowns: +240.
- Opening Kickoff was NOT a Touchback: 2/1 (+200).
- Scotty Miller OVER 0.5 Rushing Attempts: 2/1 (+200).
- Yes on Antonio Brown to score a Touchdown: +180.
- Yes on Gronkowski to score a Touchdown: +175.
- First score of game is a Field Goal or Safety: +145.
- Buccaneer Player scores 2 or more Touchdowns: +130.
- Buccaners are first to score 20 Points: +130.
