The Best and Worst Super Bowl Prop Bets in Vegas

The old saying goes, the best place to be for the Super Bowl, if not in the host city, is Las Vegas. This year, win or lose, the best place to be is New Orleans – more specifically LSU Freek's house, I presume – but it's a safe be that while Miami is where the game is, Vegas is where the action is.

Oh, and I don't mean action as in a lot going on – party hats and dancing girls – I mean action. Juice. And the prop bets are where the money is going.

One prominent sports gambler, who asked to remain anonymous, gave me the low down on the Super Bowl prop bets. 

You may not know this, but there are thousands of different prop bets for the Super Bowl, and Vegas is right on with most of them. But per my contact, there are a lot that Vegas gets cute about in order to entice action just for the action's sake. 

For example, "Will there be a safety in the game?" has a money line of +850 for Yes and -1300 for no, meaning if you think there will be a safety, you'll win $850 for every $100 wagered, while if you think the answer is no, you have to bet $1300 to win only $100. That seems like ridiculous money, until you break down the likelihood of a safety in the game, and you realize that while betting $1300 to win just $100 is silly, betting $130,000 to win $10,000 might be worth the bet.

He told me of a bet in the Pittsburgh-Seattle Super Bowl where Vegas assumed there would be a touchdown before the 28-minute mark of the game, giving the rest of the game to anyone who bet for the first TD to be scored after that time with heavy odds. He placed five different wagers of $1000 each – varying from around 80-1 odds down to 50-1 odds – and cleared nearly $300,000 because Vegas was trying to be cute.

He also told me that the sports books are built on the backs of idiots like me who will look at the game and say that Drew Brees and Peyton Manning had great years so they'll have to both throw for over 300 yards in the game. 

Actually, that wasn't me, it was a guy I overheard in the airport. Personally, I'm on the under at 57.5, which my gambler told me was a good bet for those expecting a lot of fireworks tonight. Let's just say the sharks in Vegas don't think it'll be as high-scoring as the general public, and after talking to one of them for a good part of the night, I'd go with the sharks.

So, on to some of the ridiculous props you can make!

• You can bet whether Drew Brees or Peyton Manning's first pass will be complete or incomplete (money line says complete).
• You can bet the over-under on the number of Colts to catch a pass (6.5) or have a rushing attempt (3.5) or Saints for the same bets (7.5 and 4.5, respectively. 
• You can bet if the longest field goal will be over-under 42.5 or the longest touchdown will be over-under 49.5 (all moneylines -115).
• Will the first touchdown be scored by a guy with an even number (+325) or an odd number (-450)? 
• If you think the final score will be 4-2 Colts (safeties!), you'd win $10,000 if you bet two bucks. That's good money.

Again, there are thousands more. And yes, we may be betting how many times Kim Kardashian is on the screen, as Josh Zerkle suggests. There's no number high enough to take the under.

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.