01/29/2008 2:20 PM ET
Wacky world of Super Bowl 'prop bets'
Millions will be wagered on everything -- on and off the field
By Barry Wittenstein / SNY.tv
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Which song will Tom Petty end his halftime set with? Online sites provide betting odds for these kind of bets. (AP)

Wanna bet?

For those in the great state of Nevada, the answer is yes, with estimates of $100 million to be wagered in Las Vegas on Sunday's Super Bowl.

However, did you know that even more will be wagered on bets that can only be made online?

These are called proposition bets or "prop bets."

Having little to do with which team wins or loses, prop bets can be on anything from happenstance during the game to personal, one-of-a-kind bets. They can be team and player accomplishments, such as passing yards or who will score the first touchdown.

Or, non-game events.

As in what are the odds an NFL player will be arrested in Phoenix during the week of the Super Bowl? Or will Don Shula go onto the field after the game to shake Bill Belichick's hand if the Patriots win? Or how many times will Archie Manning be shown on the TV broadcast?

Sounds crazy that people would put good money down on such things.

Regardless of how ridiculous or strange these might seem, the amount of money prop bets generate is no joke to the gambling industry; it is in the billions.

"Super Bowl prop bets are especially fun," says Christopher Costigan of gambling911.com, a Web site that monitors betting odds on everything from sports to politics to entertainment. "They add a sort of interactive excitement to the game where you can watch knowing that at any given time there is a bet to be won or lost."

Jay Kornegay, race and sportsbook director at the Las Vegas Hilton, estimates that 55 percent of his business this year will come in the form of proposition bets. With $100 million projected to be wagered in Las Vegas, that's not chump change. What might be as amazing is that prop bets are capped at around $25 to $50, meaning there are millions and millions of prop bets made throughout the world on the Super Bowl.


"Prop bets add an interactive excitement to the game where you can watch knowing that at any given time there is a bet to be won or lost."
-- Christopher Costigan

Prop bets have "gained increased popularity year after year, thanks to the Internet and one's ability to place such bets with the click of a mouse," Costigan adds. "There really is no limit to the type of prop bets that can be offered online."

Kornegay agrees, estimating that only about 15 percent of his business came from proposition bets a mere 15 years ago.

Of course, most of the betting for this and every Super Bowl will focus on the more traditional point spread and total points scored. Still, making prop bets serve a strategic purpose for the gambler.

"Don't just bet the game," the site gambling911.com suggests. "Look for the best New York Giants versus New England Patriots Super Bowl propositions, such as odds on who will get the first touchdown and first team to have an interception."

Or which offensive lineman will be the first to get a holding penalty, what song Tom Petty will sing to end his halftime show, or which Super Bowl commercial will have a higher rating on USA Today's annual Ad Meter?

The Refrigerator: "These kinds of bets have been around for a number of years," says Allen Moody , the sports gambling expert at about.com, "but really started to catch on with the public when William 'the Refrigerator' Perry scored a touchdown in the 1986 Super Bowl. The sportsbooks took a beating."

But you'd have to go even further back to 1979 for one of the better-known non-sports prop bets.

"Jackie Gaughan, owner of the El Cortez Hotel in Las Vegas, accepted bets on where the space satellite Skylab would crash," Moody continues. "Gaughan even offered 10,000-1 odds that it would land on his hotel." It landed in Australia at 30-1 odds.

Or "Who shot J.R.?" This infamous 1980 props bet credited to Sonny Reizner, the dean of Las Vegas bookmakers and one of the world's foremost experts on sports betting, was the one that finally forced the Nevada Gaming Board to restrict Las Vegas betting to only sporting events -- although no such restrictions exist today online.

The spirit of Reizner, who died in 2002, lives on at sites like bodog.com, where these similar bets can be found:

Will O.J. Simpson testify on his own behalf at his impending trial?

Will "Girls Gone Wild" founder Joe Francis be convicted on tax evasion charges? What will Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony name their first child?

And that doesn't even include the presidential election and hurricanes. Nothing, it seems, is off-limits. Well, almost nothing.

"We are not seeing many Britney Spears bets being offered." Costigan said. "I think the gambling sites are feeling sorry for her more than the press actually is."

Costigan speculates that Spears' refusal to give up her kids made the story too tragic for a prop bet.

And death pools are strictly off limits when it comes to the online gambling industry.

Apparently, the oddsmakers do have a heart.

So as you listen to Jordin Starks sing the national anthem, be aware that somebody somewhere has a prop bet on how long it will take.

And as the coin hangs suspended in the air during before falling gently to the ground, think of how much money is being wagered on how it lands.

And as Archie Manning appears for the first of many times on your screen, rest assured that bookies in Costa Rica and other lands far away are beginning their count.

The game? Who cares about the game? This is the "game within the game."

Which makes the inventor of the prop bet, the late Sonny Reizner -- wherever he is at 6:17 p.m. Sunday night -- pretty damn happy.

Barry Wittenstein is an editorial producer for SNY.tv.
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