As Super Bowl Arrives, Prop Bets Again Popular Among Gamblers

Super Bowl Sunday is just one day away, and that means that gamblers are scrambling to the Las Vegas sports books to make their final bets. As has become the norm in Super Bowl betting, proposition bets have been coming in steadily over the past two weeks.

A proposition bet is a wager on something other than the outcome of the game. Odds makers have become creative over the years, offering odds on everything from Gatorade bath color, to whether the starting quarterbacks will have more competitions than an NBA star will have points on Super Bowl Sunday.

This year is no different. With the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens set to square off tomorrow in the biggest sporting event of the year, odds makers in Vegas are estimating that nearly twenty percent of all bets placed on the game will be propositions.

Ray Lewis is one of the players that has driven the storyline to this year's game, and he is featured in several prop bets. Lewis is currently a 15/2 choice to win the MVP award in the game. Lewis is also a 14/1 choice to have the first interception in the game.

One of the big prop bets involving players in different pro leagues is LeBron James' scoring total in the Heat game against the Raptors versus the total points scored by the 49ers. The two bets both offer odds of -115.

In most cases, the odds can pay out big if a gambler hits, but the window for error is small. In one bet, a gambler can wager on how long the first field goal of the game will be. The increments on the bet are every ten yards. Gamblers odds range from 3/1 for the shorter field goals, to 10/1 for the long shots.

As for the game itself, the betting line has stayed rather stagnant throughout the two weeks leading up to the Super Bowl. The line opened at San Francisco -4.5, and has settled at 49ers -4. The total for the game is 47.5, with both teams having strong defenses, but with offenses that have exploded at various points this season.

Early Super Bowl Betting Odds Have 49ers Favored Over Ravens