Super Bowl Betting Outcomes

In my previous post, I discussed the 50-50 odds of betting on the coin toss for the Super Bowl yesterday.  I just found a few more interesting stories about the Super Bowl and betting which I would like to share.

First of all, Vegas had the Packers as two point favorites coming into the game, and had an over/under of 45.5 points.  The majority of betters (more than 50%) placed bets on the Packers and/or Over 45.5 total points for the game.  Because of the outcome of the Packers winning 31-25, a lot of people won on the bets they placed yesterday.  In fact, Vegas and the Sport Books took a big hit on the game, with reports of this being the worse loss for Vegas on Super Bowl betting since 1993.  Looking at the figure I have provided at the top of this post, one can see how the betters have done againstVegas in Super Bowl betting (image courtesy of Yahoo sports and the Nevada Gaming Commission).

Now to make matters worse, in the previous games for the AFC and NFC Championships, Vegas also took quite a beating with a large number of betters taking the Steelers to top the Jets and the Packers to beat the Bears.  The playoffs have been pretty tough for Vegas this year, but it has been good for a lot of the betters.  Things were so bad last night at the end of the first half with the Packers winning 21-10, that Vegas tried to change strategies by offering a new line with the Pittsburgh Steelers favored to win by 2.5 points.  As noted in the LA Times, this move was meant to encourage fans to bet on the Steelers, as the value of this bet was given at the equivalent of an 8.5 point underdog.  However, this plan backfired, and more fans placed bets on the Packers than was expected, and Vegas ended up taking another hit from this failed strategy.

The official numbers will be released tomorrow by the Nevada Gaming Commission, I’ll be curious to see how the numbers compare to last year, where there was over $80 million in betting, with casinos taking in about $6.8 million of that amount.

On a final note of betting, one of my students pointed out to me that a rapper by the name of “Birdman” took out a million dollar bet on the Packers winning.  I’m pretty sure he’s a happy man this morning.

Super Bowl Seating Snafu

It’s halftime in Dallas, the Packers lead 21-10.  Notably, no team has come back from being more than 10 points down to win a Super Bowl.  Two teams (including last years New Orleans Saints) have come from 10 points down, and one has come from 9 points down, but if history repeats itself, the hot start by the Packers racing to a 14-0 lead before ending the half up 11 points may indeed have decided the game.  We will see if the Steelers do better in the second half.

Jerry Jones, in his quest to build a massive state of the art stadium which could house over 80,000 people, noted that he was planning to have the stadium record for attendance at the new Cowboy Stadium of around 105,000 for this year’s Super Bowl.  In order to do this, the Cowboy Stadium staff were working hard in the last several weeks to install extra seating in many areas of the stadium.  However, this backfired for 400 unlucky fans earlier today, when it was announced the seating was not completed to a level safe enough to allow fans to sit there due to some broken seats.  Naturally, as shown in this article, fans were outraged, even though they were reimbursed three times the value of the tickets for their seats.  Notably the section planned to house 1,250 individuals, but only seating for 850 was found, and thus 400 fans who traveled all the way to the Super Bowl were told they could not get in when they got to the gate.

Combining this issue with other fans, the horrible weather which lead to only 4 of 10 entrances to the stadium being opened, it was quite the scene of chaos earlier in the day near Cowboy Stadium as fans tried to get into the stadium, and many were told they would have to wait because of the broken seats.  To make matters worse, ticket scanners broke down at one of the gates, causing fans to become “unruly” as ESPN says, to the point where the Arlington Police had to be called in to calm things down.  One resident in the article notes that it takes about 15 minutes to get in through the gates to the stadium for Cowboy games, but that he waited almost an hour and a half because of the extra long lines.

In the end, the attendance will not surpass the stadium record, and probably not beat the Super Bowl record, and it seems that there are quite a few angry and unhappy customers stemming from trying to put too many people into a stadium for the game.  Though, I’m sure the NFL and Jerry Jones will not be too concerned, they should bringing in a lot of revenue from hosting the Super Bowl at Cowboy Stadium.

And…

It is not just inside the stadium where they are seating people, but outside the stadium as well.  As many new outlets have noted, tickets were being sold to be able to watch the Super Bowl OUTSIDE of the stadium.  As noted in this ESPN article, tickets were running at $200 but had to be bought in blocks of four, and included one free parking pass, and some memorabilia to take home for those fans sitting outside.  The NFL noted that these fans watching outside in this party plaza will count towards the official attendance figure, even though they are not inside of the stadium.  Many people complained about the price of these party zone tickets, but I saw a few of these tickets being resold for over $300 on eBay, so clearly the market is there for people who want to be as close to the biggest game in North American sports as possible.

I’d really like to see how much revenue this Super Bowl generates from ticket sales and concessions.

Time for the second half!  Enjoy the Game!