A Look at the 5 Biggest Sports Gambling Events
The 2021 National Football League (NFL) Super Bowl was scheduled to take place at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, on February 7 between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and defending champion Kansas City Chiefs. One week before the game, the Chiefs were favored on the moneyline at (-171) and were (-3) favorites on the spread, meaning they were favored to win the game by at least three points. In addition to the outcome of the game, bettors had the option to place wagers on a variety of prop bets including whether or not quarterback Tom Brady would throw an interception and which players would score touchdowns.
Because it is the biggest football game of the year with an abundance of options for bettors, the Super Bowl is also among the most bet-on sporting events in the world. The following is a look at the scope of betting for the Super Bowl and four other major sporting events.
Super Bowl
The Super Bowl wasn’t always the biggest game in the United States, nor was it a popular vehicle for sports betting. Rather, the game was first created as an exhibition between the champions of the NFL and the American Football League.
As its significance to the league has grown, so has its importance to the sports gambling industry. People from all over the world flock to Las Vegas to wager on the game, and thanks to the 2018 Supreme Court decision allowing states to legalize sports gambling, betting on the Super Bowl has become easier and more accessible than ever. More than $7 billion was wagered on the 2020 Super Bowl between the Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers, according to the American Gaming Association (AGA).
Sportsbooks generally profit substantially from the Super Bowl. They made a record $158.6 million from the New England Patriots’ 13–3 victory over the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl 52 and have made a profit of at least $115 million in each of the past five Super Bowls. They have only lost money twice, including a $2.5 million loss when the New York Giants defeated the Patriots 17–14 in Super Bowl 42.
World Cup
As big as the Super Bowl is in the US, it doesn’t have the global reach of the World Cup. The world’s most prominent soccer tournament drew more than 3.5 billion viewers in 2018. Consequently, the event was popular among avid sports bettors as, according to FIFA, approximately $136 billion was wagered on the tournament’s 64 matches. A whopping $7.2 billion was wagered on the 2018 World Cup Final between Croatia and France. This figure should be even higher at the 2022 Men’s World Cup in Qatar now that 48 US states have either legalized or have introduced legislation to legalize sports gambling.
Kentucky Derby
Although it might not be as popular as other sports among casual fans, horse racing is a major component of sports betting culture in the US. Three races make up the coveted Triple Crown, and the first of those races, the Kentucky Derby, is among the most popular sports betting events. More than $250 million was wagered on the 2019 Kentucky Derby, which was won by longshot Country House after Maximum Security, the betting favorite, was disqualified for a lane violation. Country House was given 65–1 odds to win the race, and his victory marked a hefty loss for oddsmakers.
“We were going to be a pretty decent winner on our future board and now we’re going to be a significant five-figure loser,” noted Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook VP of race and sports operations Jay Kornegay, following the race. “When you have odds like that it doesn’t take a lot to create a lot of liability and create a big swing.”
World Series
Betting interest in Major League Baseball (MLB) and its end-of-season championship, the World Series, has increased in recent years. In 2017 sportsbooks drew more than $1.1 billion in MLB wagers and registered a record amount of money bet for the eighth consecutive year. The World Series, in particular, has attracted many large and sometimes unfortunate bets. In 2019 Jim McIngvale, the owner of a chain of Houston-based mattress stores, bet more than $11 million across multiple sportsbooks on the Houston Astros defeating the Washington Nationals. The Nationals, however, won the series in seven games.
The betting favorites for the 2021 World Series, according to Sports Betting Dime, are the Los Angeles Dodgers (+400), the New York Yankees (+583), and the San Diego Padres (+617).
March Madness
March Madness, the annual college basketball tournament, actually attracts a greater volume and value of bets than the Super Bowl, but these wagers are placed across the tournament’s 67 games as opposed to only one game. Nonetheless, the AGA estimated that 47 million people wagered a combined $8.5 billion on March Madness in 2019. More than half of this money ($4.6 billion) was wagered on bracket pools.
