Last year was the pinnacle moment in the history of Philadelphia sports as the Eagles upended the Patriots in one of the most dramatic Super Bowls in history. While the Birds did not make it back this year, there is a caveat in the form of legalized sports betting.
This will be the first Super Bowl ever in which Philadelphians will be able to legally bet on sports, and across the country it is expected to be the most wagered on Super Bowl in history. According to the American Gaming Association, approximately 22.7 million Americans plan on betting on this year’s Big Game. That’s a 26 percent increase from a year ago when sports betting was mostly illegal outside of the state of Nevada.
The statewide total sports betting handle is expected to triple for the month of January with more casinos opening across the state of Pennsylvania and strong numbers from the Eagles playoff games. In December, the statewide handle was $16.1 million. But much has changed sports-betting wise in the state since then. Those figures only looked at Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh, SugarHouse Casino in Philadelphia and Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course.
The Super Bowl will kick off the month of February in a big way for sure. There’s already been a ton of action of the Patriots versus Rams matchup across the country with a lot of the betting interest in this game is centered on the points total – over/under. Super Bowl LIII opened at 59 points 10 days ago but dropped to 56.5 early this week. The record low for a Super Bowl is 57, which was set two years ago in the Falcons versus Patriots matchup.
Casual bettors typically wait until gameday to place their bets, so we could very well see that total jump up before kickoff early Sunday night.
While there’s been plenty of movement on the total, the spread has remained at Patriots -2.5 over the past week.
