Super Bowl LIX predictably represented one of the biggest sports betting days in the U.S. since PASPA was overturned in 2018.
Wagering on the NFL’s premiere event was legal in the 38 states on Sunday, the most ever for the Big Game.
"Super Bowl LIX was the single biggest betting event in the history of BetMGM,” the sportsbook’s senior trading manager Christian Cipollini said. “It took the most bets, and was one of the best single-game results in company history.”
Super Bowl LIX wasn’t a bloodbath for the house, which is traditionally the case because of the various amounts of betting markets offered. Unlike last year, JMP Securities, which predicted a legal Super Bowl handle of $1.75 billion, reported on Monday that margins and outcomes “appear to be positive” for Flutter (FanDuel), DraftKings, Rush Street (BetRivers), Caesars, BetMGM, and Genius Sports.
“Overall, Super Bowl LIX was a decent result for the sportsbook, as more customers backed the Chiefs in this game and in the futures pool than the Eagles,” Joey Feazel, Caesars Sportsbook’s head of football said. “There were a variety of touchdown scorers, which would usually be favorable to the customers, but unfortunately Saquon Barkley was the most popular SGP leg and he did not see the end zone.”
What went right
The Eagles beat the Chiefs 40-22, ending Kansas City’s two-year run as NFL champions, as a slight underdog. They were getting 54% of the spread bets and 64% of the money at BetMGM. Also, 60% of the moneyline handle was backing Philadelphia, but the Chiefs were a much larger liability in the Super Bowl winner market for the online operator.
Sure, the popular over 48.5-point total bet hit on a flurry of late scores, and Jalen Hurts scored the first touchdown at +600 and won MVP as the second most-bet player in both markets. However, Barkley and Kansas City tight end Travis Kelce failing to find the end zone killed off a ton of same-game parlays for the sportsbooks.
“We were happy with how the night went,” a DraftKings spokesperson told Covers.
“Philadelphia was the result we preferred for the Super Bowl winner, and obviously Barkley and Kelce not having the type of days that many hope for, showed good results,” said bet365 trading leader Aron Wattleworth.
This was especially celebrated by operators coming off an incredibly unprecedented bettor-friendly NFL regular season that had gaming companies altering their revenue projections.
“We walk away from the most wagered-on event of the year with a constructive outlook and see (first quarter 2025) estimates tracking ahead of expectations,” JMP reported.
Super familiarity
FanDuel reported a new record of more than 16.6 million Super Bowl bets placed on its platform this year, a 19% increase from 2024. The online sportsbook said it had nearly three million users wager, and activity peaked at nearly 70,000 bets per minute.
Rival DraftKings saw more than 12 million bets placed from 2.5 million active customers. The sportsbook peaked with 59,000 bets per minute just prior to kickoff.
However, North Carolina was the only new U.S. market to launch since last year’s Super Bowl, and that was certainly felt in download data. With so many bettors already familiar with wagering in their jurisdictions, JMP said there were 1.7 million app downloads for the market share leaders during the two-week Super Bowl window. That was down 23% from 2024.
Sunday’s downloads of 292,000 suffered a 60% year-over-year decrease. Downloads were down 6% during the latest NFL season but increased 13% when excluding ESPN BET.
Prop success
JMP estimated that 50% to 60% of all Super Bowl betting came from player prop markets. The research firm used several methods to track prop activity and found that sportsbooks had better outcomes than bettors.
Barkley came up well short of his rushing total, reaching just 57 yards on the ground, and Fanatics Sportsbook said 29% of SGPs handle had him scoring an anytime TD. There was a defensive touchdown, and Chiefs receiver Xavier Worthy caught two scores with odds of +1,400 at BetMGM, but many of the long-shot props missed.
Bettors did win with Hurts, who was -115 to score a TD at BetMGM. He had the second-most tickets and second-most handle to score the first TD. His odds of +375 to win Super Bowl MVP were behind only Barkley, so many bettors made out with a nice hit.
Now I’m trophied up 🏆@JalenHurts #SBLIX pic.twitter.com/YNUunTar2t
— NFL (@NFL) February 10, 2025
Fanatics Sportsbook said Hurts and Worthy “were big winners for customers,” while Eagles receiver DeVonta Smith going over 50.5 receiving yards was the most popular player prop over to hit at BetMGM.
Hurts and Mahomes both hitting the over on their passing yards totals also helped bettors, as did AJ Brown (+180) and the Eagles defense (+600) scoring touchdowns.
Hefty payouts
While operators seemed in good spirits on Monday, they didn’t come out of the Big Game completely unscathed. Several big wagers hit.
BetMGM’s notable Super Bowl winning bets included an $800,000 bet on Eagles +110, a $300,000 wager on Eagles +0.5 first half, and $5,000 on the coin toss to be tails.
A bettor at Caesars wagered $400,000 on an alternate line bet of Eagles +4 with -198 odds, netting $202K. Caesars also said a $225K bet on the Eagles +110 moneyline paid out over $214K. A $175K wager on a touchdown being the last score of the game hit for a $100K profit as well.
FanDuel reported a bettor turned a $10 eight-leg parlay wager into $7,612 on DeAndre Hopkins scoring a TD, DeVonta Smith scoring a TD, Barkley 25+ receiving yards, Hurts 1+ passing TDs, Mahomes 2+ passing TDs, Smith to record a 30+ yard reception, and Worthy to catch a pass of 30+ yards.
