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Super Bowl betting: Here's what you need to know

By Griffin Carroll | Last updated Feb 6, 2024 7:45 PM ET

News broke on Tuesday that 68 million Americans are projected to place a bet on the Super Bowl this Sunday, totaling $23 billion. If you're not much of a sports bettor yourself, you might be wondering what type of bets people are making on the big game this week that amounts to that incredible amount of money.

Yes, you can bet on who wins the game, but the breadth of betting options has never been more plentiful than it is today. Maybe you want to bet on the result of the opening coin toss or who will catch the first pass of the game. Or perhaps you'd like to bet on the color of the Gatorade dumped on the winning coach. There's more than you think available on the legal sportsbooks.

Betting on the Super Bowl's game result

The most common NFL bets for any game revolve around the spread, over/under and moneyline. The spread represents the points that sportsbooks are projecting one team to win by.

Spread

For example, the San Francisco 49ers are favorites over the Kansas City Chiefs this Sunday, with the current spread 49ers -2. That means, that if you wanted to back San Francisco against the spread, you'd need them to win by more than two points to win your bet.

If you think Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs keep this game close, you might back Kansas City +2, which would become a winning wager in the event that Kansas City lost by one point, or won the game.

Moneyline

A moneyline bet is simply a bet on a team to win the game. San Francisco is currently -125 on the moneyline as the favorites and Kansas City is set at +105. If you wanted to bet the 49ers to win, those odds mean you'd need to wager $125 to win $100, whereas if you bet Kansas City to win, you'd wager $100 to profit $105.

Over/under

This is the projected total points scored in the game. As of this writing, the over/under for Super Bowl LVIII is 47.5 points. If you bet the over and the final score was 30-20, you would win. If it was, say, 17-14, you would lose. Simple enough!

Our thoughts on betting the game's result

For what it's worth, we're drawn to Patrick Mahomes and Kansas City as the underdogs. They weren't favored last February either and won 38-35 over Philadelphia. Mahomes is the NFL's best quarterback and is 10-1-1 against the spread as an underdog in his career. That's a trend we like to back.

Fun bets to make on the Las Vegas Super Bowl

There are plenty of novelty bets that you can place on Sunday's action. Some are more ridiculous than others, but hey, betting can be fun when done responsibly.

Gatorade Color

One of the more popular prop bets is the color of the Gatorade dumped on the winning coach after the game, as is tradition in a championship game.

Last year saw purple dumped on Andy Reid, only the second time that color has been the one since 2001. As of the start of this week, BetMGM had reported that orange is the most bet color to be used at the end of the game.

Taylor Swift themed over/unders

You thought sportsbooks wouldn't try to cash in on the Taylor Swift craze with the pop star dating Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce? Yeah right.

DraftKings has built an entire menu of Swift-themed bets, highlighting her various hit singles. There's "22: Any Quarter to have 22+ points scored" at +400. There's even "Karma: Travis Kelce to have 0 receptions and 49ers to win" at +3000.

Please, don't bet that one.

In all, we're seeing 26 different options on DraftKings with Swift's various songs.

Betting Scorigami and Octopus

It's okay if Scorigami and Octopus don't make a ton of sense as betting options for an NFL game. Octopus is simply the act of a player scoring a touchdown and immediately scoring the two-point conversion to account for all 8 points, and thus, an "Octopus." Eagles QB Jalen Hurts cashed +2000 tickets last year when he pulled it off in the fourth quarter.

To bet on a Scorigami happening means that you're betting on a score that has never before been recorded in an NFL game occurring. There have been 1,080 unique scores in NFL history, and while the combinations are technically limitless, you'd need some funky action like missed extra points, safeties and 2-point conversions to hit a Scorigami.

Our betting advice on fun bets like these

Don't bet too much on silly bets like this. They are designed to be fun, and should be nothing more than an entertaining footnote in your night of football. We are always a sucker for betting the over on the National Anthem length to start the game, as there's nothing like the thrill of that singer holding that last note for just enough time.

Betting on player props

A player prop is more straightforward and a more recommended strategy than novelty props. In this instance, you're betting on an individual to hit certain statistical thresholds set by sportsbooks, such as yards and receptions. You can also bet on them to score touchdowns at varying odds.

Yardage props

Take Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce as an example. We're currently seeing his receiving yardage prop set at 70.5 yards, meaning that if you expect a big game out of Kelce and want to back him at his standard line, you'd need him to record 71 or more receiving yards to cash his over.

For what it's worth, Kelce has 71+ receiving yards in 12 straight playoff games. We like his over.

Touchdown bets

It's right in the name, but betting a player to score a touchdown means that, yup, he needs to score for you to win. The fun of these props is that the prices tend to reflect the relative risk that comes with trying to choose the correct TD scorer.

Let's get crazy for a moment and highlight San Francisco 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk. Juszczyk does not see a lot of work in this San Fran offense, but it's at least noteworthy that he scored in the last Super Bowl the Niners played, which just so happened to be against the Chiefs.

He has just two touchdowns this year and his odds reflect that. He's currently +1000 to score on BetMGM, meaning that if you threw just $5 on the fullback scoring and he punched one in, you'd pocket $50 of profit on top of your initial bet.

Our thoughts on player props

We love betting on them, and we love rooting them on. We'll have plenty throughout the week on our Sports Betting hub, and it can really make the game action more enjoyable to watch when either offense has the ball, if you don't care who wins the game.

Enjoy the Super Bowl, and remember to bet responsibly! Explore your sportsbooks today and see what type of novelty props your state is offering. There should be plenty of fun options.

Griffin Carroll

Griffin Carroll is focused on bringing you the betting numbers that matter. With a focus on the NFL, NHL and NBA, Griffin relies on a data-driven betting approach for prop bets, spread picks and over/unders.

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