With Super Bowl XLIX set to kick off Sunday at University of Phoenix Stadium, the New England Patriots remain 2-point favorites (-105) over the Seattle Seahawks at online sportsbook Sportsbook.
According to Sportsbook Sportsbook Manager Kevin Bradley, the Super Bowl opened as a pick’em there, but an instant influx of Patriots money moved the line in their favor to the current number.
Bradley said Sportsbook has seen more Seahawks money over the last few days, although not enough to change the betting line. So far, 55 percent of bettors are putting their money on New England and 45 percent on Seattle.
“We will need the Hawks on the game itself, our best result from a futures perspective also,” said Bradley.
Meanwhile, the total opened at 48.5, although some sharp “under” money moved the line down to 48, where it still sits mid-week. Regardless, a majority of the public is betting the “over” at 52 percent overall, a common betting trend for the Super Bowl.
Among Super Bowl props at Sportsbook, a few have stood out above the rest in early betting action. The national anthem will be sung by Idina Menzel, and the OVER/UNDER number on how long it will take her to finish it has not changed at all.
“The national anthem is always a heavily bet prop,” Bradley said. “Opened 2 minutes, 1 second, still that number and seeing exactly 50/50 money come in, so looks like we were spot on from a numbers perspective.”
Some other popular Super Bowl props involve New England head coach Bill Belichick’s hoodie, Deflategate, and Seattle running back Marshawn Lynch. Grey is still the slight favorite to be the color of Belichick’s hoodie on Super Bowl Sunday, but the line has dropped significantly from an opener of -200 down to -120 while blue has jumped up from +175 to +100 and red has stayed about the same at +750 from +700.
Bettors also think the word “deflated” will be mentioned more than 2.5 times during the television broadcast of Super Bowl XLIX, which was the Sportsbook number at Sportsbook. The number has since risen to 3 since 60 percent of the public is on the OVER.
Finally, Lynch could get fined for wearing his unauthorized “Beast Mode” logo hat on Super Bowl Media Day, and bettors who wagered “Yes” at +400 on whether he does or not are anxiously awaiting the NFL’s decision. Until then, they can also wager “Yes” that he will grab his crotch following a touchdown against the Patriots at the same price. In both cases, “No” opened as the heavy favorite at -600.
“Popular prop I guess because people can tell their friends they can actually bet this,” Bradley said. “Almost no one betting ‘No,’ all ‘Yes’ money right now, so we are hoping he does not.”
