I’m an avid football fan. Raised in New England, I’ve been religiously following the Patriots for over decade. Although I may not have learned much “football trivia” at this past Sunday’s Super Bowl event, I actually learned a surprising amount about the vast world of gambling that surrounds football games, and especially the Super Bowl. The GRF hosting the event, Shiv, gave us an introduction on the basics of proposition bets. These bets are essentially wagers that aren’t directly decided by the final outcome of the game. Most commonly, prop betting is focused around factors such as individual or team performances, and prop betting has been around for a very long time — dating back to at least the 1870’s if not earlier. I was intrigued by this, and the Rose event inspired me to a little deeper into prop bets.

One thing I learned is that, as a general rule, sportsbooks tend to fare very well on prop betting. Why? Well, prop betting is vastly driven by public interest and perception. Especially during the Super Bowl, bettors set prop bets for fun in hopes of getting lucky with a payout, often without putting excruciating thought into such wagers. For this reason, sports prop betting is thought to actually be a profitable sector of gambling for “smart” bettors. For example, player-based prop bets are a prime example of what may be a profitable sector for individuals who specialize in football stats — such as fantasy football gurus. Often times, as sportsbooks have so many lines to set, they will base player bets simply on average stats. Close football enthusiasts, however, may realize the “intangibles” that a line may not account for, and use this to their advantage. Essentially, bettors have an edge over sportsbooks in the sense that they can dig deeper and do their research. Regular bettors often search through varying betting platforms to seek discrepancies that one casino may have that can be taken advantage of.

To summarize — the Rose event was a unique experience, informing and intriguing me on a topic I had little knowledge of!