Super Bowl 55 National Anthem: Prop Bets & Odds Guide

UPDATE: Jazmine Sullivan and Eric Church clocked in for the U.S. National Anthem at two minutes and 17 seconds (2:17) to go OVER the one minute 59 second (1:59) O-U prop. The prop was taken down by sportsbooks prior to kickoff due to a video leak of rehearsal at Raymond James Stadium.

Like bacon and eggs – or sausages and eggs, or ham and eggs, or basically any breakfast meat and eggs – the Star-Spangled Banner goes hand in hand with the NFL. You know what else goes with the NFL? Betting. But you knew that because that’s why you’re here. At Odds Shark, we understand that this year’s Super Bowl is going to be a haven for casual and pro bettors alike.

The American national anthem is a staple at sporting events big and small across the United States, but arguably the most scrutinized is the performance done each year at pro football’s biggest event.

The NFL always likes to get a big name in the music industry to sing the anthem and has opted for a duet with R&B singer Jazmine Sullivan and country music star Eric Church collaborating on the Star-Spangled Banner for Super Bowl 55.

Sportsbooks know a lot of bettors will be laying big dollars on betting props involving the length of the national anthem. However, after leaked footage of a potential runtime for the anthem, most oddsmakers took down the O-U for Super Bowl 55. 

Prior to the leaked footage, the O/U for the anthem runtime was set at one minute 59 seconds (1:59):

Odds as of February 5 at Bovada

Background on Eric Church and Jazmine Sullivan

An R&B singer from Philadelphia, Jazmine Sullivan may not be a household name like Demi Lovato or Pink but her vocal chops will fit right in for the Star-Spangled Banner performance. The 33-year-old doesn’t have as many public performances of the anthem at sporting events as her predecessors but there’s still one that most bettors will be watching to get a tale of the tape. 

Sullivan sang the anthem for an NHL Stadium Series game between the Wild and Blackhawks in February 2016 and clocked out at 1:38:

As for Eric Church, if you can find an anthem performance by him on YouTube or some deep corner of the internet, congratulations. The country star’s exploits do not include a rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner, which means you’ll be going in blind on what to expect from this duet.

Two factors that come to mind when considering the anthem runtime are that Church typically likes to use a guitar in his live performances but also because it’s a duet, does each person sing one line and just trade off lyrics? Will there be a guitar solo? There are a lot of things that bettors need to contemplate before placing an O/U bet on the runtime.

Finally, this will be the first duet of the U.S. national anthem at the Super Bowl since Super Bowl 40 when Aretha Franklin and Aaron Neville took the field to belt out the patriotic classic. For what it’s worth, their performance clocked out at 2:09 in runtime as each singer took turns belting out segments of the anthem.

Super Bowl Anthem Past Runtime Results

A wise man once said, “It’s hard to predict the future without knowing your history” and that man was me. Jokes aside, you can never do too much research when betting this prop so it’s important to know how past singers have done in this scenario and whether musical genre plays a part in the handicapping.

It’s worth mentioning that since Super Bowl 40, the average length for the national anthem is one minute 55 seconds. The last time the Super Bowl was in Tampa, it was in 2009 for Super Bowl 43 with Jennifer Hudson as the crooner and she clocked out at two minutes 10 seconds.

The final tip when betting this is to remember that sportsbooks grade this prop out for the first time the singer says “brave” to conclude the anthem. For Super Bowl 53, Gladys Knight sang “brave” three times to conclude the Star-Spangled Banner and OVER bettors thought their bet was in the bag until being corrected in the fine print. Most sportsbooks ended up paying out the bet anyway but you can’t count on them to be this generous after that debacle.

Super Bowl National Anthem Prop Bet: Past Results

What National Anthem Props Can I Bet on for Super Bowl 55?

The best part about Super Bowl betting is that sportsbooks don’t release only the runtime prop for the national anthem performance but also a variety of other considerations to keep bettors engaged. Some of them are as simple as which player will be shown first during the anthem to whether the singers will forget or omit a word.

Here is a full list of national anthem betting props being offered at Bovada and BetOnline:

Odds as of February 7 at Bovada

Odds as of February 5 at BetOnline

Odds as of February 7 at BetOnline

Odds as of February 7 at BetOnline

Odds as of February 7 at BetOnline

Odds as of February 7 at BetOnline

Odds as of February 7 at BetOnline

Odds as of February 7 at BetOnline

National Anthem Composition History

Francis Scott Key, a lawyer from Maryland who would probably be a Ravens fan with complete faith in Lamar Jackson if he were alive today, wrote the poem that the anthem is based on. After drawing inspiration from the American flag that was known at the time as the Star-Spangled Banner, Key sat at his desk, his wooden teeth whistling, and penned a ditty about a wild night against the British complete with rockets glaring red, bombs bursting and freedom in the land of the free and the home of the Atlanta Braves.

Now, it’s up to you, the bettor, to decide how long it will take for Sullivan and Church to get through Key’s tune. 

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How to Make a Prop Bet on the National Anthem

Most prop bets are specialized wagers that have no bearing on the outcome of the actual game. In this case, a prop bet on the national anthem would be like an OVER/UNDER, aka a totals wager. You would need to decide if the amount of time it takes for the singers to finish singing the anthem will be longer or shorter than the oddsmaker’s set time.

For example, this is what the national anthem prop looked like at online sportsbook Bovada in 2020:

By betting the OVER, you think Lovato’s anthem performance will last longer than one minute 55 seconds. Those odds are listed by sportsbooks at -220, meaning the anthem is more likely to go OVER the runtime than UNDER. The -220 odds refer to how much you’d have to bet in order to make $100 in profit. So, if you bet $220 and Lovato went OVER the runtime for her performance, your $220 would be returned along with $100 in profit from the sportsbook.

On the flip side, if you think Lovato’s performance will go UNDER one minute 55 seconds, those odds are listed at +155. When odds have a plus sign (+) in front of them, it indicates how much you would make if you bet $100. For example, if you bet $100 on Lovato to go UNDER and she does, you’d get your $100 bet back along with $155 in profit from the sportsbook.