How to bet on the Super Bowl

Established in 1967, the Super Bowl is the annual championship game of the National Football League (NFL), and is also one of the biggest events of the year for sports bettors. The big game closes out a month-long postseason, and features a matchup between the champions of the NFL’s two conferences, the NFC and AFC. The Super Bowl is the single biggest event on the American sports calendar and attracts a global audience of over 200 million.

The NFL is made up of 32 teams, who compete in four divisions in each conference. The winner of each division qualifies for the NFL playoffs, along with the three non-division winning teams with the best regular-season record. Playoff matchups are determined by seeding, with the highest seeded teams clashing with the lowest seeded teams in each playoff round.

Now established as an annual February tradition, the Super Bowl also provides an array of betting options for every type of sports bettor, regardless of experience. In addition to typical game line wagering, the Super Bowl offers a unique opportunity for sports bettors to get in on the action off the field, with wagering on every aspect of the game from the national anthem to the color of the celebratory Gatorade shower.

For sports bettors most interested in the action on the gridiron, all the typical betting options that are available during the NFL regular season are also available for the Super Bowl. Moneyline betting enables you to simply and easily place a bet on which team you think will win the game, with the payout determined by moneyline odds.

Even more popular is point spread betting, which enables you to wager on the margin of victory by which a team will win or lose. Let’s take the example of the Los Angeles Rams being listed as 4.5-point favourites against the Cincinnati Bengals. That means if you bet on the Rams, they must win by five or more points for you to win your bet, while Cincinnati can lose by as many as four points and still emerge as a winner.

Prop bets enable you to wager on team and player performances, regardless of who wins the game. Examples of prop bets include wagering on how many touchdown passes a quarterback will throw, or how many yards a rusher will run for, with the option to wager that the player will either finish over or under a specific number.

Of course, you can also wager on how a team will perform over the course of the season with a futures bet. You can bet on which team will win its division, which player will be named MVP, and which team will win the Super Bowl, among countless other options.

Super Bowl LVI featured a matchup between two teams aiming to end long championship droughts. The Los Angeles Rams returned to the big game for the second time in four years, searching for their first Super Bowl title in two decades. For the AFC champion the Cincinnati Bengals, the match marked their first trip to the Super Bowl in 34 years.

Led by veteran quarterback Matthew Stafford, the Rams finished the regular season with wins in seven of their last eight games to seize the NFC West divisional title. Los Angeles continued their strong play in three playoff game wins, including a 30-27 victory over defending champion the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the legendary Tom Brady.

Last-place finishers in the previous four years, the Bengals rocketed to the top of the AFC North standings in 2021. Cincinnati’s success was powered by rising star quarterback Joe Burrow. The 25-year-old also lifted the Bengals to an early Super Bowl lead, but were unable to stop the Rams on a late-game drive that ultimately sealed a 23-20 victory.

Originally known as the AFL-NFL Championship Game, the Super Bowl originated as a clash of champions from rival leagues, and did not even adopt the name Super Bowl until the third edition of the game in 1969. However, with the AFL and NFL eventually merging into the single league we now know as the NFL, the Super Bowl quickly emerged as the most important date on the US sports calendar.

In addition to making the Super Bowl the biggest game in football, the 1970 merger of the NFL and AFL resulted in the realignment of the new league into two conferences, the AFC and NFC. Since that time, the Super Bowl has been a battle between the NFC and AFC conference champions. The Green Bay Packers emerged victorious in the first two editions of the Super Bowl, raising concerns as to how competitive former AFL teams would be. That all changed over the next decade, with former AFL teams winning 11 of the next 13 Super Bowls.

The Pittsburgh Steelers dominated during those years, winning four titles, while the Miami Dolphins claimed the crown on two occasions, including their perfect season in 1972. The NFC dominated from the mid-1980s through to the mid-1990s, winning 13 straight Super Bowl titles. This was also a golden era for Joe Montana and the San Francisco 49ers, who won four titles, while “America’s Team” the Dallas Cowboys won three times.

As the NFL entered the 21st century, the arrival of Tom Brady transformed the New England Patriots. With Brady at the helm, the Patriots reached the Super Bowl nine times, raising the trophy on six occasions. Brady eventually left New England in 2020, moving on to Tampa Bay, where he won his seventh career title with the Buccaneers at Super Bowl LV before retiring at the end of the 2021 season.