Chiefs vs Buccaneers in Super Bowl 55 betting odds

In the gambling world, Super Bowl Sunday is classified with a much different name. Those who derive their living from monies wagered on the annual championship game of the National Football League promote the day as sports betting Christmas, for it truly is the season of giving odds on just about everything to do with, about and around the game.

An estimated $154.6 million was wagered on Super Bowl 54 between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers at Las Vegas sportsbooks alone. The American Gaming Association estimated that in total, Americans bet approximately $6.8 billion on last year’s Super Bowl game.

“NFL coin toss” by GetArchive is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 

As the Chiefs prepare to defend their NFL title against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Super Bowl 55 on Feb. 7th, there are obvious ways to wager on the game. The Chiefs are 3.5-point favorites. You can bet on Kansas City to cover, meaning that the Chiefs must win the game by four or more points. Or you could take the points and play Tampa Bay. If the Buccaneers win the game outright, or lose by three points or less, you’ll be a winner on this play.

The moneyline wager is a straight up play on who will win the game based on a wager of $100. Tampa Bay is the underdog, offered at odds of +150. That means if the Bucs win, you’d pocket a $150 profit on a $100 bet. The Chiefs are the -170 favorite. The negative number indicates that in order to win a $100 profit from a bet on Kansas City, you’d need to wager $170. 

A betting tip – the favorite has won and covered in each of the last two Super Bowl games and in three of the past four contests. However, going back over the last nine Super Bowls, the underdog owns a 5-3-1 slate.

The total is another popular Super Bowl wager. A point total for both teams is established. In the instance of this year’s game, the bar is set at 56.5 points. Your task is to determine whether the point total for the game will go over or under that total, and then bet accordingly.

The last two Super Bowls have gone under. That’s interesting, considering that the two starting quarterbacks for this game – Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes and Tampa Bay’s Tom Brady – were the QBs of the last two Super Bowl winners. However, going back further, five of the last eight Super Bowls went over.

The true beauty of the Super Bowl is that you can bet on just about anything to do with the day. These are called Super Bowl prop bets, and they’re as popular as the game itself. About half the money wagered on the Super Bowl will be played on prop bets.

In the case of many of these prop wagers, you need to know jack squat about football, because the bets have no bearing on the outcome of the game.

Let’s take a stroll through some of the more ridiculous – or is that ridiculously popular? – Super Bowl 55 prop bets.

The Coin Toss

It is literally a flip of the coin, and so is wagering on the outcome of the event that officially gets the game underway. Will you bet on heads, or go with tails?

On the surface, this certainly appears to be a 50-50 proposition in terms of the outcome. In actuality, tails owns a 29-25 advantage over the history of the Super Bowl. The coin has come up tails in the past two games and in six of the last seven Super Bowls.

There are props within the prop with this wager. You can wager on which team will win the toss. Bettors can also make a play on whether the team that wins the toss will also win the game. That’s been the case in 24 Super Bowls. But the coin toss winner is 0-6 in the last six games.

Doused With The Drink

Even since the 1986 Super Bowl, when the New York Giants celebrated their victory over the Denver Broncos by dumping a bucket of Gatorade over the head of coach Bill Parcells, teams have marked Super Bowl success by giving their boss a sticky shower of this colored liquid sports drink.

What color will it be, though? That’s the question with this prop bet. The odds say to mellow with yellow. That’s been the winning color in five of the last 11 games, giving it a 45.4 percent probability of coming up the winner.

“Gatorade Shower” by TheLines is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 

Who’s Your Puppy?

Since 2005, the Puppy Bowl has been an annual Super Bowl Sunday tradition. And betting has also gone to the dogs. Who are you backing to win this game between dogs that are all up for adoption from animal shelters across the USA? Team Fluff has outscored Team Ruff in three of the last four games to capture the Lombarky Trophy.

You can also make a play on whether the Puppy Bowl MVP will be a male or female. The guys have claimed three of the last four MVPs.