No one, not even in retrospect, predicted the dominance of the Denver Broncos by the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLVIII. It started with the opening snap from center flying over Peyton Manning’s head and the day went quickly downhill from there for Denver.
It was one of the biggest days in the history of wagering in the USA and the Seattle Seahawks moved firmly into contention in the ‘best bet ever’ category.
Sports books in Nevada and elsewhere had record breaking amounts of money wagered on Super Bowl XLVIII.
Last year’s total handle was approaching the $100 Million mark but this year’s figure soared all the way up to almost $120 Million wagered on the big game. The actual figure was $119,400,000 with a hold percentage of 16.5%, which is the highest since 2005. In all Nevada books shared a whopping $19,673,960 profit for their afternoons work. Not too shabby.
That’s what happens when the underdog wins outright and the game goes over the set totals. No one expected it, but hey. That’s part of the game. If it always turned out as expected, it wouldn’t be much fun and certainly not worth wagering on.
The big money was going on the Broncos. Michael Lawton of the Nevada Gaming Control Board told reporters, “Our channel checks throughout the week had indicated that the public was betting on Denver almost 2-to-1. That being said, when the Seahawks won outright the books had a solid day to say the least.”
Translate ‘a solid day’ to they made a whole bunch of money in one afternoon. Wagering got so out of hand that players were even betting on whether the day’s handle would exceed the $100 Million mark.
Jimmy Vacarro of South Point was one who bet the under, “I didn’t think it would get this high, so I’m a little surprised. But, I’ve never seen that many people inside the sportsbooks at once. We didn’t get the record because some guy bet $20 Million on the game. It was just that everyone was betting on it.”
2013 itself was a banner year for Nevada sports books. The total handle was over $3.62 Billion yielding earnings of $202,837,871 a hold percentage of 5.6%.
Vacarro went on to point out, “To those people who hold (sports betting) back in other places, you can’t ignore it now. People like it. People want to be part of it.”
