You’ll almost never find a sportsbook risk room complaining when the Under hits on the Super Bowl total, such is the public’s propensity to bet the daylights out of the Over. So come Sunday night, after the Kansas City Chiefs rallied for a 31-20 victory over the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LIV, oddsmakers far and wide noted the Under was the key to a profitable day behind the counter.
“The Under really helped a lot,” said John Lukasik, sportsbook manager at The Book at The Linq, a Caesars Palace property. “The moneyline was great, too. Those two crushed a lot of parlays.”
Lukasik’s peers in the Caesars risk room provided a two-word description for Chiefs and Under, which was exactly what the house needed: “Monster day.” In fact, it remained that way after the wildly popular proposition bets were graded.
“Handle up over last year,” Caesars’ risk team said. “Props were good because no funny stuff happened.”
Indeed, there was no safety, 2-point conversion or overtime, among other popular plus-money public plays.
CG Technology director of risk operations Tony DiTommaso said it was a solid Super Bowl Sunday for his shops, including at The Cosmopolitan and Venetian on the Las Vegas Strip.
“Everything was good. We approached a seven-figure win. For us, it was a pretty decent day, no complaints,” DiTommaso told Covers – before noting one modest complaint: Damien Williams’ late 38-yard touchdown scamper. “The game staying Under certainly helped, but that late Chiefs score really hurt us. A monster swing, almost $200,000, because it put the second half Over.
“Heaven forbid the guy breaks into the clear and takes a knee!”
MGM books in Vegas joined Caesars in having a tremendous Super Bowl Sunday. Recall that last week, Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale made a $1 million bet on 49ers moneyline +120.
On Sunday, a large casino player who’d been firing away since bowl season plopped down almost $2.44 million in the following manner: $550,000 49ers +1.5; $550,000 across two bets on Over 53.5; $500,000 49ers first-half moneyline; $500,000 first-half Over 26.5; $50,000 first-quarter Over 10.5; and $287,750 49ers second-half moneyline.
That bettor pushed on the San Fran first-half moneyline play, but MGM books picked up just shy of $1.94 million on the rest of those plays. Chiefs and Under was a major score behind the counter.
“It’s our best result since 2008,” MGM books director of trading Jeff Stoneback said of a multiple-millions windfall for the house. “It fell just as we needed.”
The SuperBook had a modest win on the spread/moneyline/total, then got a solid boost from the prop bets, according to sportsbook manager Cameron Coombs.
“We were set up solid for both teams on our futures book. Our best outcome would’ve been Niners and Under,” Coombs said. “The Under was big for us. We managed a low-six-digit win on the game. Everything posted (including props), a mid-six-figure win. We could have won seven figures if the Niners held the lead.”
Added Jay Kornegay, who oversees The Superbook as Westgate’s vice president of race and sports: “We had a decent day, but a little disappointed, as we were staring at our best-case scenario, and it slipped away.”
William Hill US took its largest bet for this year’s Super Bowl three hours before kickoff, $525,000 on Chiefs -1 at a Las Vegas location. So the bettor got the best of that one, though WillHill director of trading Nick Bogdanovich said the book scooped up a lot of Niners money.
“Nevada was solid. All other states were a very small loser,” Bogdanovich said, adding that after the final tally, across all William Hill US operations in the U.S., the Super Bowl was a win for the book.
