Super Bowl Betting Explained
Betting on the Super Bowl explained When betting on the Super Bowl online, there are loads of different markets to choose from, but what do all of them mean? We’ve explained some of the most. Super Bowl 54 odds, explained Kansas City Chiefs (-1) vs. San Francisco 49ers, O/U 54 The most common way to bet on football is by betting on the spread. The Chiefs are a one-point favorite over.
It’s among a sportsbook’s worst nightmares: having its tech sputter and eventually fail during a gigantic betting event like the Super Bowl.
Unfortunately for Barstool Sportsbook, BetRivers and DraftKings Sportsbook, that was exactly the case Sunday – and it was an outside vendor who took the blame.
The issue was on platform and technology provider Kambi‘s end, which explained the issue on its year-end earnings callWednesday. The failings had nothing to do with high betting volume, Kambi said, adding Super Bowl 55 was the most-bet event ever.
That claim is supported by data from GeoComply, which reported more than three times the legal US online sports betting transactions this Super Bowl weekend compared to 2020.
Instead, the outage stemmed from one specific market, Kambi CEO Kristian Nylén explained:
“The issue experienced prior to kickoff was related to one particular bet offer for which we increased the number of possible outcomes especially for the Super Bowl. This bet offer was the third-most popular offer on the day and, due to the extended number of outcomes, required extra technical capacities as part of our bet validation process. Unfortunately, this additional capacity caused a backlog and slowed, and eventually stopped, the bet validation process for all bets.”
Kambi declined to identify the market that caused the outage.
Super Bowl betting offline for 30 minutes
Kambi first noticed the issue at 5:05 p.m. Eastern, with an hour and a half left before kickoff. Bet validation was sluggish off and on over the next 85 minutes, Nylén said, with no bets accepted for 30 minutes total. The longest consistent outage was 22 minutes, he added.
Kambi slapped together a patchwork fix at first and eventually implemented a permanent fix “seven to eight minutes” before kickoff, Nylén said. The company then processed its highest volumes of all time in the moments right before kickoff, he explained.
Nylén expressed his disappointment in the failure but said he’s confident the same issue wouldn’t occur again. He also noted, as illustrated on the graph, how in-play volumes were “consistently and comfortably” above last year throughout the game.
Did outage bolster ‘own-your-tech’ argument?
Kambi provides turnkey trading technology for sportsbook operators that don’t own their own platforms. One look at Kambi’s partner list shows the firm has international respect.
The outage led to some discussion whether those involved in US sports betting industry are better off owning their technology. DraftKings moved that way with the acquisition of SBTech, which will see the company switch from Kambi’s platform this year.
A proprietary platform won’t solve every problem, though, as FanDuel Sportsbookalso had its own issues Sunday. Customers in Illinois, Pennsylvania and recently-launched Michigan couldn’t log into their accounts or place bets.
The company told LSR that was because of unprecedented demand, though similar issues plagued the sportsbook on multiple NFL Sundays this season.
Nylén: Barstool has potential for ‘very, very strong position’
The conference call Q&A also included a question on customer mix, which appeared pointed at DraftKings’ eventual exit.
Nylén said the US mix will definitely be “less heavy” on one customer before showering Barstool Sportsbook with some praise:
“Having said that, Penn and Barstool, they have shown very, very strong numbers early on. I think there’s quite a good potential of Penn taking a very, very strong position in the US as well.”
While that’s probably true, it doesn’t hurt for Nylén to grease the wheels a bit with that relationship. Barstool Sportsbook had a promotion that Penn CEO Jay Snowdentalked up on its recent earnings call where anyone that bet $100 on the Super Bowl would be randomly assigned to five teams. If the Barstool personality leading that team won the most money, those teammates would get $1,000 each.
Barstool paid out everyone that bet on the game because of the outages.
“Wait, why does this NFL team have a -235 next to its name? What’s with New England Patriots (-15) vs. Miami Dolphins (+15)? Help! HEEEELPPPP!”
If that sounds like you, we’re here to assist you. If you’ve stared at a board at a sportsbook or just seen spreads and moneylines on the Internet and been utterly confused, don’t worry. It’s not just you. Those numbers can be confounding.
But hopefully, once you’re done reading this, you’ll completely understand how they work. As you prepare to dive into the world of sports betting, here’s a breakdown of how the lines work, starting with …
Spreads
It would be really easy to bet on a game if you could put money on a heavy favorite to win.
That’s where point spreads come in. Let’s look at an example:
Philadelphia Eagles (-4.5)
New York Giants (+4.5)
In this case, you can bet on either two outcomes: you can put money on the Eagles to win the game by 4.5 points OR MORE, which makes them the favorites. Or you can bet that the Giants will either win or lose by LESS THAN 4.5 points. They’re the underdogs.
Now, sometimes the spread “moves” during the days leading up to the game. Perhaps the Eagles’ spread ends up being -3.5 (in which they must win by 3.5 points or more to give you a victory in your bet). Your bet all depends on whichever spread you bet on, whether it was when the Eagles were favored by 4.5 or 3.5 points.
If you ever see “PK” or “pick” next to a team, it means there’s no spread and you can bet on who will win, no matter what the score is.
Moneylines
Let’s take that same example above but use moneylines:
Philadelphia Eagles (-200)
New York Giants (+150)
The team with a minus symbol is the favorite, and the number is how much money you would need to bet to win $100. In this case, you would have to bet $200 on the Eagles in order to win an additional $100.
The Giants are the underdogs. If they’re +150, that means you could bet $100 to win $150.
Note that you can bet any amount you want, but those numbers are always calculated and posted the same way, either in how much money you would need to wager to win $100 or how much money you could win by wagering $100.
How Do Super Bowl Bets Work
Odds
If you’re betting on something like the team who will win the Super Bowl in the future, you might see it look like this:
New England Patriots — 3/1
Baltimore Ravens — 5/1
Kansas City Chiefs — 8/1
What Are The Super Bowl Bets
If you were betting on the Patriots and their 3/1 odds, you would win $3 for every $1 you spend. So if you bet $50 on the Pats and they ended up winning the Super Bowl, you’d win $150 (plus your original wager) back.
Good luck!