SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Las Vegas casinos were ready to celebrate. For the most part, bettors had favored the New England Patriots to win the Su per Bowl, and the Seattle Seahawks had only one yard to go to take the lead with less the 30 seconds on the game clock. Then Seahawks Coach Pete Carroll made arguably the absolute worst play call in Super Bowl history, a slant pass that resulted in an interception, and New England wound up winning in stunning fashion.
Nevada officials reported the state’s 191 sports books kept $3.3 million out of the total $116 million wagered on the Super Bowl. That amount is less than last year’s record-breaking bets totalling $119.4 million. The sports books kept $19.7 million last year.
However the New England Patriots’ 28-24 win over the Seattle Seahawks represented the worst-case scenario for their betting business, said the directors of sports books at the Wynn and Westgate Las Vegas on Monday.
John Avello from Wynn and Jay Kornegay from Westgate say that If not for side bets, their losses might have been greater. Avello says his sports book lost money. Kornegay says he eked out a small win.
We had several six-figure bets on each side, but a few more on the Patriots,” The Wynn casino’s John Avello explained to Sporting News. “We had some huge bets on the Patriots, so the day didn’t go so well for us.”
Nick Bogdanovich, William Hill sports books’ director of trading, told the Las Vegas Sun “There was quite a bit of Seattle money late, but obviously, we were still a little bit high on New England. The worst-case scenario for us was Patriots-to-OVER,
