Nevada sportsbooks saw a record amount of money come pouring through their cash drawers on Super Bowl Sunday. Unfortunately, not very much of that cash stayed there as punters cashed in on the underdog and an array of proposition bets.
According to a report on Super Bowl Betting in the Las Vegas Review Journal, Vegas sportsbooks saw approximately $156.8 million in action on the day. By the end of a wild and crazy game, they were left with only 0.7 percent of that for a take of around $1.17 spread out over 198 legal sports books.
That win percentage is the smallest the sportsbooks have seen since 2011 when they took in just 0.8 percent of the action for a profit of just $724,000.
The big difference between the volume of wagers in 2011 and 2018 is the meteoric rise of proposition betting on Super Bowl Sunday. Bettors have embraced the myriad of side bets in a major way and the casinos are the ones paying price, as noted by CG Technology sports book vice president Matt Holt who said:
Props is the reason for the record handle. Those things have just grown by leaps and bounds. We did over $3 million in props ourselves and that’s without taking any big bets.
The big bets, however, were out there and there were at least five $1 million wagers on the game reported. All but one of those wagers were on the winning, underdog Philadelphia Eagles. One high roller had $7.4 million spread across a variety of wagers, mainly moneyline, and made out like a bandit.
Though the sportsbooks came out in the black, it’s a safe to bet on the fact that they’ll be taking a close look at proposition wagering before next year’s big game.