Super Bowl XLIX
is less than a week away and slowly but surely, betting action is also gaining some steam. That’s to be expected, although it’s safe to say that the vast majority of bets for the game aren’t expected to come in until this weekend. That’s when things really pick up and could sometimes cause the spread to fluctuate in a matter of hours. For now, though, action is progressing along nicely leading up to the game.
Right now, most sportsbooks still have the New England Patriots as the -1 favorites. Clearly, all the drama surrounding the deflated footballs haven’t had a bigger effect on the spread than most people thought. Some books have even had to move the number to -1.5, but for the most part, the spread has remained where it is since the early reversal after the conference championship games. This isn’t to say that we’re following a similar path to last year’s Super Bowl when everybody and their grandmas we’re riding with the Denver Broncos. In fact, action on the Seattle Seahawks has increased in the past few days, but it’s still not enough to move the spread back in their favor.
There has been some movement on the totals. Since opening at 48.5, the number has dropped to 48 for some books while others have even pushed it back down to 47.5. It’s a surprising twist since the public usually sides on the over in these types of games, but as it turns out, bettors are justifiably afraid of the Seattle Seahawks’ defense clamping down on the Tom Brady and the Patriots offense. Early action on the under seems to back up this position, and that has compelled some books to drive the number down a little bit to see whether it can get some action on the other side.
As far as where the action is relative to Las Vegas sportsbooks’ record haul of $119 million in betting handle, Vegas books seem to be a little concerned that bets coming in aren’t happening as feverishly compared to last year. While it’s still early to suggest that it’s going to fall short of last year’s record handle, the early signs do point to this year’s handle falling a little short of what books made last year.
Things could still change, though, so don’t put that in writing just yet. Betting on Super Bowl XLIX is just getting started and over the next few days, you can be sure that business will definitely pick up.
