Is the Big Game fixed? Ask your bookie
By NewsPress Now
To grasp how far the Super Bowl has come, consider the halftime show when the Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Minnesota Vikings in 1970.
The Southern University marching band provided what the TV announcer at the time called “fast-stepping, toe-tapping” entertainment at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans. It took years, until the late 1980s, for the NFL to realize that halftime was more than a bathroom break and that Prince or Eminem could be part of the spectacle along with the commercials and the game itself.
So 54 years later, it’s fitting that Super Bowl LVIII gets played in Las Vegas, the most over-the-top city for what’s now the most over-the-top sporting event turned cultural phenomenon. The year, the Super Bowl even plants a flag on what’s become fertile ground in today’s cultural landscape: the social-media-fueled conspiracy theory.
Shortly after Patrick Mahomes and company booked a spot in the Super Bowl, rumors circulated that it’s all rigged in favor of the Chiefs. If you’re trying to make sense of it all, this fever dream has something to do with the NFL wanting the Chiefs in the big game so Taylor Swift would arrive and influence the election with an endorsement of Joe Biden. Whew, that’s a mouthful.
Never mind that the Chiefs made it to three Super Bowls in the Mahomes era before Swift showed up in a VIP box and started acting like a soccer mom whose kid just scored a goal. Never mind that Swift isn’t the first celebrity to win the camera’s attention at a big sporting event. (Donald Trump was a regular at the U.S. Open tennis tournament until fans booed him on the big screen.) Never mind that the Super Bowl is the one time the NFL doesn’t need Swift’s help because everyone, including casual fans, will be watching.
Finally, remember that the best way to throw a game is to get the cooperation of the other team. Any takers on entering the 49ers locker room and asking a man who’s capable of bench pressing a subcompact car if he’s willing to take a dive? Didn’t think so.
For further evidence that there’s no hanky-panky, look at Sin City itself. The Las Vegas sportsbooks know how to come out on top at the Super Bowl, the pinnacle of sports betting.
As of this writing, the 49ers were a 2.5-point favorite. The Niners remained -130 money line favorites compared to +105 to +115 for the Chiefs with a week to go before the game, meaning that a bet on the Chiefs will pay out more because in the bookies’ eyes, they’re not expected to win.
Forbes magazine reports that Super Bowl gamblers as a whole have only beaten Nevada sportsbooks twice since 1991. Nevada sportsbooks have taken $3 billion in Super Bowl bets in the last three decades, holding about 8% of the handle ($250 million) in the form of winnings.
It doesn’t mean the Chiefs won’t win, but it does show there’s little evidence the fix is on. Even if you did try something funny, the bookies wouldn’t allow it because sports gambling is just too big of a business now, allowed in 38 states (but not Missouri).
The NFL once stiff-armed gambling as a threat to the game’s legitimacy, but now the tables have turned.
