For those of you wondering when the sea-change of digital wagering happened, no, you haven’t been living under a rock. For many states, online betting was legalized for the first time in 2020, and many others were brought aboard earlier.
But if Angry Birds ate up months of your life or you’re just generally uncomfortable with the idea of real, honest-to-God gambling, never fear, for there is a lot of fun to be had between you, family, and friends at this year’s Super Bowl party. The excitement is palpable, and our guide to prop bets will only raise the stakes.
Super Bowl Prop Bets
Proposition bets – also known as the side bet – are a time-honored tradition among friends and family, and they’re an easy (and often low-stakes) way of putting a little more skin in the game. The key is to find something that has no direct impact on the outcome of the game itself, and then find a someone willing to take the opposite.
Keep the stakes small. Think of this as the quarter slots at the casino. You won’t make a lot if you win, but you won’t need to cry if you lose. Numerical value should range from a dollar to a cap of around 10.
Some of our favorite bets include
- Heads or tails on the coin toss
- Whether the Half Time Show talent is suspended by wires
- Which team will score the first touchdown
- Which team will have the most passing yards
- Which victorious player will nearly choke to death on raining confetti
- Which team will have the most field goals
- Which kicker will look like the lead singer from Weezer
- Which person in your group will break wind first and try to blame it on someone else before having to finally admit it
- The over/under for the time it takes to get through the national anthem
Other Betting Games
Over/Under
Yeah, this one can bleed into the prop bets category, but its style runs within and without the game. Set a specific number – say, number of commercials that will play before some pharmaceutical add pops up. Add a half to that number to ensure that there are no draws (“three-point-five commercials”). One person in your group takes the “over,” or bets that the actual amount will go over that number, and another takes the under. Got it?
For in-game, pick a number of completed passes or rushing yards and follow the same rules. As mentioned previously, these could also be integrated into prop bets for bigger payouts or side action with another party.
Squares
Have you been overwhelmed by all this football-centric jargon so far? Don’t know a touchdown from a touchback? Then Squares is your game! It’s easy to set up and requires zero knowledge on rule changes for the season. All you need is a pen, a sheet of paper (all of you will share one piece), and a ruler to draw a 10-by-10 grid with numbers along one side and the top. Or, just download an online template.
Put your name in one of the squares and pass it around until everyone has one square. Now, swipe right on your dating app a few times, eat some chicken wings, and check back in when the quarter, the half, the third quarter, and the end of the game finish, recording the scores. The highest-scoring team at that time is the side of the board, the lower-scoring team is the top.
Take the last digit of the highest-scoring team’s score and move across until you find the column of the lowest-scoring team’s last digit. If it’s your square, you win! If it’s not, someone else has won. The beauty of the game is that there are four chances to win.
Everyone pays into a pot before numbers are selected, and then each quarter’s winner earns a fifth of the pot. The winner of the fourth quarter, and therefore the game, usually gets two-fifths.
Finally, one last piece of advice: Avoid the twos. (Trust us.)
Take Jamie Foxx’s advice on this one: Go with your gut. MGM, FanDuel, and MyBookie are only a few of the online gambling options out there, but like casinos themselves, they’re all relatively safe because of the oversight and regulation. Once you get in, you’ll be offered of all sorts of options, which is always a perk. Have fun, set a limit, and know when to walk away. And when to run away even faster.
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