Peyton Manning making it to the Super Bowl and losing was the best thing that could have happened to Las Vegas. Manning has a cult following across America, which let to millions of dollars being placed on the Denver Broncos as 2.5-point favorites. They didn’t quite manage to cover the spread, and the end result was record Super Bowl profits for the state of Nevada.
As the Associated Press reported on Monday, gamblers wagered a record $119.4 million on Super Bowl XLVIII. The public lost in a big way as the majority of bettors backed Denver, leading to $19.7 million in profits for Nevada sportsbooks. The previous record for Super Bowl profits was set in 2005, when casinos made $15.4 million.
Had it not been for a few unlikely plays, the house would have made even more money. Anyone who bet on a safety got 8:1 odds, and those who bet on a safety being the first play of the game got somewhere in the neighborhood of 60:1. We already showed you one gambler who won $25K on the Broncos giving up a safety to start the game. The two-point conversion Denver converted late in the game also paid out 5:1.
“The safety is no longer in my vocabulary,” Wynn sportsbook manager Johnny Avello joked.
Casinos also made out on the over/under, where the total was set at 47.5. Most bettors — likely taking the potential for nasty weather and a ferocious Seahawks defense into consideration — took the under. The total ended up being 51.
As any logical person could tell you, the house always wins. Nevada sportsbooks have only come out on the losing end of the Super Bowl twice in the past 20 years, the last coming when they lost a record $2.6 million after the New York Giants beat the New England Patriots in 2008. Their profits from this year alone more than covered that hit.
