Super Bowl Sunday is practically a national holiday in the United States, and a heavily bet holiday at that. But our friends across the pond like to grab a piece of the Big Game betting pie, too. Covers checks in on the action and line movement in Ireland and the United Kingdom, with insights from Joe Lee of Paddy Power and Alex Apati of Ladbrokes.
In the Bill Belichick-Tom Brady era, New England has reached the Super Bowl nine times, going 5-3 SU and 3-5 ATS on its previous eight trips, including last year’s loss as a favorite against Philadelphia. The Patriots (13-5 SU, 11-7 ATS) let a 14-0 halftime lead at Kansas City slip away in the AFC Championship Game, but came away with a 37-31 overtime victory as 3-point underdogs.
The last time the Rams were in the Super Bowl, they were based in St. Louis and lost to the Brady-led Patriots to cap the 2001-02 season. Now back in Los Angeles, the Rams (15-3 SU, 9-8-1 ATS) edged New Orleans 26-23 in overtime as 3-point road pups in the NFC Championship Game.
Much like the action at sportsbooks across Nevada, New Jersey and all the new U.S. sports betting locales, Ireland and the UK saw immediate play on New England for Sunday’s 6:30 p.m. ET kickoff.
“Before the conference finals were played, the pointspread was -1.5 in favor of the Rams,” Lee said of a bit of a lookahead number offered at Paddy Power. “Once the Patriots won their conference, we saw an influx of bets for the Patriots, which shifted the industry spread to Rams -1, +1, +2, +2.5 and back to +2 throughout the week. It is currently Rams +2.”
That action led to moneyline moves at Paddy Power as well, with Los Angeles going from about a -137 favorite to +110 ‘dog, while New England moved from even money to -133.
Ladbrokes likewise saw its punters – the English term for bettors – jumping on the Belichick-Brady bandwagon early.
“Some big moves in the spread there, as the Patriots opened -1 faves but quickly moved to -2.5,” Apati said, noting Ladbrokes is in the same position as American sportsbooks. “We are heavily cheering on the Rams.”
Ladbrokes opened the total at 57.5 and dipped to 56, but the liability is actually on the Over.
“We only have a small position here, cheering on Under,” Apati said.
Paddy Power would like to see a Rams outright victory, and Lee had an interesting theory on why the Pats drew all that early cash.
“Our head of U.S. sports made a very good point earlier in the week: If the Patriots had played their conference final match first, we probably wouldn’t have seen as much activity for the Patriots,” Lee said. “More focus would have been on the Rams’ excellent second-half defensive display against the Saints. As our pre-conference final lines suggest, we think the Rams can come out on top, but we are expecting a very close game.”
Patrick Everson is a Las Vegas-based senior writer for Covers. Follow him on Twitter: @Covers_Vegas.
