Super Bowl Spread

The Super Bowl is one of the most anticipated, watched, and thus predicted events in the country. It's no surprise that many sports fans worldwide want to make a little money off the show. Why not? If those Super Bowl commercial advertisers pay 2.6 million in return for a much larger profit down the road, why not make a little bit of money off the Super Bowl yourself?

Gambling And The Super Bowl Spread

However, Super Bowl betting is outlawed in many U.S. territories, at least on an organized scale. (It's highly unlikely that the cops are going to bust your office pool) Some exceptions are Las Vegas, Nevada the gambling capitol of the world and one location that you can easily find a Super Bowl spread in time for the big game. If that's the case, then how can so many online companies offer you Super Bowl betting? Online companies have more leeway, generally because they are physically located outside the U.S. or because they are operated out of Nevada.

Super Bowl betting is organized into various types of bets, that provide different levels of wagering details. The simple straight-up bet focuses on a team winner, while the money line involves a team winning by a specific margin. The Super Bowl spread is America's most popular way of betting and involves a bettor risking a bet (say, $100.00 to win $100.00) and then paying a $10.00 commission to the bookmaker if the prediction fails. The Super Bowl spread is more difficult however, as their predicted team must win by more than a certain victory margin that is set well in advance of the game.

The Super Bowl spread is unique in that it allows underdog bettors to win money even if their team loses, since they can still win against the Super Bowl point spread by losing by fewer points than were initially quoted.

An Example Of An NFL Super Bowl Point Spread

Let's say that you were following the Colts vs. the Bears game at the 2007 Super Bowl. Maybe the Colts had a 27 point favorite. If the Colts defeated the Bears by over 27 points then the spread will have been covered and bettors would receive $100.00 for a $110.00 bet. Bears fans would lose their $110.00. However, if the Bears had won then the reverse would happen. If the Bears would have lost by less than 27 points, they have won against the spread and so it would be just as if they had won the game. If the Colts had won by exactly 27 points then neither side would have won, which leads many bookmakers to set point spreads for half-points. A Superbowl spread breaks down the bet from a simple win or lose format.

Whether you are organizing an office pool or betting online, a Superbowl point spread certainly adds excitement and suspense to the big game.