Want to make some fast cash?
Here’s how: Bet $100 on the Cardinals to win Super Bowl XLIII on Sunday. If they beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, you win $210.
It’s that easy.
And that’s what football fans around the world are betting on.
“We are seeing a 50 percent increase in gambling interest than last year because of the Cardinals,” Reed Richards, a spokesman for BetUs.com said. “I think Arizona quarterback Kurt Warner is a Cinderella story — an older guy with one last run in him. We are seeing a lot of women getting involved because they are interested in his back story. Young people aren’t always the stars.”
Warner appeared to capture fans’ hearts — and wallets — in 2000 when the former supermarket bag boy led 200-1 long shot St. Louis to the Super Bowl title.
On Sunday at 6:18 p.m. on NBC, gamblers are hoping Warner, 37, and the 6.5-point underdog Cardinals can again make history.
“There is a ton of underdog money line wagering,” Tony Sinisi, the odds director for Las Vegas Sports Consultants, said. “Rather than taking the points, they take the odds.”
Traditionally, a person would bet on the Steelers and need them to win by more than 6.5 points to win money. Or a person betting on the Cardinals would need them to win, or lose by less than 6.5. But thousands are taking the Cardinals to win the game outright — a trend that served gamblers well last year when the heavy-underdog New York Giants upset the previously undefeated New England Patriots, 17-14. It also worked wonders for those who bet on New England to defeat the St. Louis Rams in Super Bowl XXVI, as the 14-point underdogs pulled out a 20-17 win.
BetUs.com, which was recently named 2008 Sports Book of the Year by Online Gaming Insider, and others would not reveal specifically how much has been wagered on the Super Bowl, but more than $8 billion — both legally and illegally — is expected to be placed on the sport’s biggest game.
Last year, about $92 million was bet legally in Nevada — the only state where gambling on college and professional sporting events is legal — and sportsbooks are predicting the number will soar to $100 million this year.
But even in tough economic times, sports gambling experts are expecting billions to be bet on the Super Bowl as the industry continues to grow thanks in large part to easy access on the Internet. About $2.6 billion was wagered at the Nevada sportsbooks in 2007, according to the state’s Gaming Control Board. But online, experts estimated about $20 billion was wagered on sports last year.
Super Bowl gambling, however, isn’t a bunch of degenerates in a dimly lit bar rooting for a team to cover the spread.
It can be a mother of two hoping Bruce Springsteen performs her favorite song at halftime.
As the Super Bowl has grown in popularity, so to has betting on it. Fans wanted more options for the pinnacle of the football season, and sportsbooks deliver them in “prop” bets.
They can range from how many yards a running back will gain to how many catches a player records. But the past decade, it has evolved. BetUs.com, however, has odds on players getting arrested leading up to the Super Bowl (Santonio Holmes, 2/1 odds), touchdown dances (River Dance, 9/1 odds) and how many songs The Boss will play (over/under 3).
Las Vegas Sports Consultants has posted about 300 prop bets for its clients, which include the Las Vegas Hilton, Caesar’s and the Palms, with most created by senior odds maker Dan O’Brien.
“I’ll be watching the Super Bowl and I forget who’s winning or losing and the point spread,” O’Brien said. “I’m more like, ‘Oh my gosh, who just caught that pass, was it number 81 or 87?'”
