AP: 0cca38e4-5a6d-42aa-a780-51c17b9e42c9
Beyonce answers questions during an NFL football Super Bowl XLVII news conference at the New Orleans Convention Center, Thursday, Jan. 31, 2013. in New Orleans. She won't be lip-syncing at halftime on Sunday, but will her hair be curly or straight. Vegas is taking action on that. (AP Photo/J. David Ake)

Prop bets make for lively Super Bowl with non-fans

BY Chris Sullivan  on February 1, 2013 @ 6:28 am (Updated: 9:33 am - 2/1/13 )

So you can't stand the 49ers or the Ravens, but you've been invited to a Super Bowl party. The commercials and the snacks will only get you so far. You can always put down a few bucks on some crazy bets to keep you interested.

We've heard from Beyonce. She won't be lip-syncing at halftime on Sunday, but will her hair be curly or straight? You can put money on that online.

People are also taking bets on what color her first outfit will be. Black is a heavy favorite at 9 to 4. These crazy bets are in the subset of what's called proposition bets. Things like number of first downs, will there be a safety, how many completions will Joe Flacco throw. They are not allowed in Vegas, but online you can bet just about anything.

Hundreds of millions of dollars are going to change hands around the world this weekend. Last year in Nevada alone, nearly $94 million was wagered on the game.

And these legitimate prop bets make up nearly 50 percent of the wagering on the Super Bowl. That was is allowed in Vegas.

Jimmy Vaccaro is a longtime oddsmaker in Reno. "The interest has grown, and it continues to grow," he said. "These are a product of interest. If there wasn't any interest in it, we wouldn't put them up because nobody would bet them."

Here are a few more unusual bets you can't get in Vegas but can get online.

How long will Alicia Keys version of the National Anthem take? The over-under on some sites is two minutes, 10 seconds. Others have the line at 2:15.

Will Keys add a word or forget a word in the anthem? That's also getting some action. The over-under on the highest number of tweets per second during the game - 17,000 is the line.

This is my favorite: How long will the post game hug between the Harbaugh brothers be? The over-under is around seven seconds.

You can bet on how many times Ray Lewis will mention God during his on the field interview be, that line is three.

But if none of that does it for you, you can always bet the house on the coin toss.

Chris Sullivan, KIRO Radio Reporter
Chris loves the rush of covering breaking news and works hard to try to make sense of it all while telling stories about real people in extraordinary circumstances.
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Comments (2)


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  • eastcoastexpat74 wrote...
    Stupid Bowl
    February 1, 2013 7:46 am
    Since my teams lost and I am sick of the nonstop stories about the Harbaugh a**holes I think I am going skiing this sunday and forget about the Super Bowl for once.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • flipper wrote...
    Beyonce'
    February 1, 2013 8:25 am
    She lip synchs, who cares. The prop bet should be over/under 3 minutes for the National Anthem. All the vocal inflections are annoying. Give me that dude who sings "O Canada" at the Canucks games any time.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }