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Click here to Watch the Super Bowl Live now! N.Y Wins! 21-17
70,000 fans will pour into Indianapolis to watch the New York Giants face off against New England Patriots for the Super Bowl, almost five times that many will be heading to Vegas. The gaudy neon-lit oasis in the Nevada desert -- 1,600 miles away from Lucas Oil Stadium where the Super Bowl XLVI will be hosted -- becomes the biggest and glitziest man cave during Super Bowl weekend. Swanky hotels and nightclubs with beautiful lounges hosting enormous flat screen TVs put fans in the lap of football-watching luxury.
But the biggest reason football fans flock to Vegas is because Nevada is the only state where betting on big games is legal. Jimmy Vaccaro, one of the most influential sports bookies in Sin City, said he has been setting the odds on sports for more than 30 years.
"Football is king," he said. "Basketball is a distant second and baseball. Put it this way, football you write about, 45 percent of the whole year's handle is on the football."
The handle is the total amount of money bet, and the Super Bowl has the biggest handle of any sporting event, with up to $93 million in the pot in previous years and bookies are expecting a bigger pool this year.
"We all know there's a recession going on. We all know it's not been good the last few years," Vaccaro said. "Sports betting handle has kept up from year to year. People find money to bet on football. We have not taken any nosedive whatsoever. Matter of fact we're going to write more this year than we did last year. It's in our blood."
Lisa Marchese, chief of marketing at the Cosmopolitan hotel, said that in Vegas the only thing bigger than Super Bowl weekend is New Years Eve. One reason it draws out so many people is that sports betting is a bit more accessible than some of the other casino games.
"They've got all those ancillary bets, like who's going to get the first touchdown, and who's going to get the most yardage. Those are the bets I always fall for. They're the absolute worst bets," she said.
The sports book is unlike any other game in the casino. The odds, for everything else, are mathematical. The casinos know, with precision, how likely it is that the dice will roll a lucky seven or the next card will make blackjack.
That's where the genius of sports bookmakers come in. It's their job to set the odds -- from the overall point spread in the game to the countless so-called "proposition bets," for example, "Will the Patriots score more points than Lebron James does for the Miami Heat Sunday?" Bookmakers say it's more of an art than a science.
"It's on you," Vacarro said. "You're pulling your cash out of your pocket. I think I'm a little smarter than you at times." Vacarro said the biggest loss of his career was a proposition bet made back in 1985 when the Chicago Bears played the Patriots in the Super Bowl. Bears defensive lineman William "The Refridgerator" Perry scored a touchdown.
"I can still see Refrigerator Perry crossing the goal line when it was about 100-to-1 that he would score a touchdown in the game," he said. "We paid dearly. I can still feel the sting 26 years later. It resonated through the whole strip corridor. When he went across the goal line I could hear a groan." This year bookies are facing another possible heart-stopping moment, because the Giants were never expected to make it to the Super Bowl this season.
"If you're a better and you're sitting with the Giants at 100-to-1 for $200 that's to win $20,000," said Wynn sports bookmaker Johnny Avello. "There's quite a few out there. At the beginning of the season they were about 20 to 1. They were as high as 100-to-1 and everywhere in between, so there's a lot of Giants money out there." Vegas has plenty of ways to hedge the bet, and plenty of 49'ers and Packers fans have already lost their wagers.
The Super Bowl is the annual championship game of the National Football League (NFL), the highest level of professional American football in the United States, culminating a season that begins in the late summer of the previous calendar year. This game is held at a selected site, usually a city that hosts an NFL team. The Super Bowl uses Roman numerals to identify each game, rather than the year in which it is held, with Super Bowl I being the 1966 season championship game.Click here to Watch the Super Bowl Live now! N.Y Wins! 21-17
70,000 fans will pour into Indianapolis to watch the New York Giants face off against New England Patriots for the Super Bowl, almost five times that many will be heading to Vegas. The gaudy neon-lit oasis in the Nevada desert -- 1,600 miles away from Lucas Oil Stadium where the Super Bowl XLVI will be hosted -- becomes the biggest and glitziest man cave during Super Bowl weekend. Swanky hotels and nightclubs with beautiful lounges hosting enormous flat screen TVs put fans in the lap of football-watching luxury.
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| Super Bowl 46, N.Y Giants -vs- NE Patriots |
"Football is king," he said. "Basketball is a distant second and baseball. Put it this way, football you write about, 45 percent of the whole year's handle is on the football."
The handle is the total amount of money bet, and the Super Bowl has the biggest handle of any sporting event, with up to $93 million in the pot in previous years and bookies are expecting a bigger pool this year.
"We all know there's a recession going on. We all know it's not been good the last few years," Vaccaro said. "Sports betting handle has kept up from year to year. People find money to bet on football. We have not taken any nosedive whatsoever. Matter of fact we're going to write more this year than we did last year. It's in our blood."
Lisa Marchese, chief of marketing at the Cosmopolitan hotel, said that in Vegas the only thing bigger than Super Bowl weekend is New Years Eve. One reason it draws out so many people is that sports betting is a bit more accessible than some of the other casino games.
"They've got all those ancillary bets, like who's going to get the first touchdown, and who's going to get the most yardage. Those are the bets I always fall for. They're the absolute worst bets," she said.
The sports book is unlike any other game in the casino. The odds, for everything else, are mathematical. The casinos know, with precision, how likely it is that the dice will roll a lucky seven or the next card will make blackjack.
That's where the genius of sports bookmakers come in. It's their job to set the odds -- from the overall point spread in the game to the countless so-called "proposition bets," for example, "Will the Patriots score more points than Lebron James does for the Miami Heat Sunday?" Bookmakers say it's more of an art than a science.
"It's on you," Vacarro said. "You're pulling your cash out of your pocket. I think I'm a little smarter than you at times." Vacarro said the biggest loss of his career was a proposition bet made back in 1985 when the Chicago Bears played the Patriots in the Super Bowl. Bears defensive lineman William "The Refridgerator" Perry scored a touchdown.
"I can still see Refrigerator Perry crossing the goal line when it was about 100-to-1 that he would score a touchdown in the game," he said. "We paid dearly. I can still feel the sting 26 years later. It resonated through the whole strip corridor. When he went across the goal line I could hear a groan." This year bookies are facing another possible heart-stopping moment, because the Giants were never expected to make it to the Super Bowl this season.
"If you're a better and you're sitting with the Giants at 100-to-1 for $200 that's to win $20,000," said Wynn sports bookmaker Johnny Avello. "There's quite a few out there. At the beginning of the season they were about 20 to 1. They were as high as 100-to-1 and everywhere in between, so there's a lot of Giants money out there." Vegas has plenty of ways to hedge the bet, and plenty of 49'ers and Packers fans have already lost their wagers.
The upcoming game, Super Bowl XLVI, will be played at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, on February 5, 2012, to determine the champion of the 2011 season between the New York Giants and the New England Patriots. The game was created as part of a merger agreement between the NFL and its then-rival league, the American Football League (AFL). It was agreed that the two leagues' champion teams would play in an AFL–NFL World Championship Game until the merger was to officially begin in 1970. After the merger, each league was redesignated as a "conference", and the game was then played between the conference champions.
Currently, the NFC leads the series with 24 wins to 21 wins for the AFC. The day on which the Super Bowl is played is now considered a de facto American national holiday, called "Super Bowl Sunday". It is the second-largest day for U.S. food consumption, after Thanksgiving Day. In addition, the Super Bowl has frequently been the most watched American television broadcast of the year. Super Bowl XLV played in 2011 became the most watched American television program in history, drawing an average audience of 111 million viewers and taking over the spot held by the previous year's Super Bowl, which itself had taken over the #1 spot held for twenty-eight years by the final episode of M*A*S*H.
The Super Bowl is also among the most watched sporting events in the world, mostly due to North American audiences, and is second to association football's UEFA Champions League final as the most watched annual sporting event worldwide. Because of its high viewership, commercial airtime during the Super Bowl broadcast is the most expensive of the year because the viewing count of the Super Bowl is an average of 100,000,000 people every year. Due to the high cost of investing in advertising on the Super Bowl, companies regularly develop their most expensive advertisements for this broadcast. As a result, watching and discussing the broadcast's commercials has become a significant aspect of the event. In addition, many popular singers and musicians have performed during the event's pre-game and halftime ceremonies because of the exposure.
1966–1967: Packers' early success The Green Bay Packers won the first two Super Bowls, defeating the Kansas City Chiefs and Oakland Raiders following the 1966 and 1967 seasons, respectively. The Packers were led by quarterback Bart Starr (#15), who was named the Most Valuable Player (MVP) for both games. These two championships, coupled with the Packers' NFL championships in 1961, 1962, and 1965 have led many people[who?] to consider the Packers to be the "Team of the '60s."[citation needed], USA."
1968–1980: AFL/AFC dominance In Super Bowl III, the AFL's New York Jets defeated the eighteen-point favorite Baltimore Colts of the NFL, 16–7. The Jets were led by quarterback Joe Namath (who had famously guaranteed a Jets win prior to the game) and former Colts head coach Weeb Ewbank, and their victory proved that the AFL was the NFL's competitive equal. This was reinforced the following year, when the AFL's Kansas City Chiefs defeated the NFL's Minnesota Vikings 23–7 in Super Bowl IV. After the merger, the AFC dominated the Super Bowls of the 1970s; the Dallas Cowboys were the only NFC team to see Super Bowl success during the period, winning two championships.
During the 1970s, three teams (the Pittsburgh Steelers, Dallas Cowboys, and Miami Dolphins) won most of the decade's Super Bowls. Pittsburgh won Super Bowls IX, X, XIII, and XIV, while the Cowboys claimed Super Bowls VI and XII and the Dolphins were victorious in Super Bowls VII and VIII, the first of which capped off the only undefeated season in NFL history. Only the Oakland Raiders managed to interrupt the dominance of these three teams, with a win in Super Bowl XI. The Minnesota Vikings, meanwhile, reached four Super Bowl games during the 1970s led by their powerful Purple People Eaters defense, only to lose each one.
By virtue of their four Super Bowl victories during the 1970s, the Steelers became the first NFL dynasty of the post-merger era. They were led by head coach Chuck Noll, the play of offensive stars Terry Bradshaw, Franco Harris, Lynn Swann, John Stallworth, and Mike Webster, and their dominant "Steel Curtain" defense, led by "Mean" Joe Greene, L.C. Greenwood, Ernie Holmes, Mel Blount, Jack Ham, and Jack Lambert. The coaches and administrators also were part of the dynasty's greatness as evidenced by the team's "final pieces" being part of the famous 1974 draft. The selections in that class have been considered the best by any pro franchise ever, as Pittsburgh selected four future Hall of Famers, the most for any team in any sport in a single draft. The Steelers were the first team to win three and then four Super Bowls and appeared in six AFC Championship Games during the decade, making the playoffs in eight straight seasons. Nine players and three coaches and administrators on the team have been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Pittsburgh still remains the only team to win back-to-back Super Bowls twice and four Super Bowls in a six-year period.
1981–1997: The NFC's winning streak In the 1980s, the tables turned for the AFC, as the NFC dominated the Super Bowls of the new decade and most of those of the 1990s. The NFC won 15 of 16 Super Bowls during this time, from Super Bowl XIX to Super Bowl XXXI.
The most successful franchise of the 1980s was the San Francisco 49ers, which featured the West Coast offense of head coach Bill Walsh. This offense was led by three-time Super Bowl MVP quarterback Joe Montana, Super Bowl MVP wide receiver Jerry Rice, and tight end Brent Jones. Under their leadership, the 49ers won four Super Bowls in the decade (XVI, XIX, XXIII, and XXIV) and made nine playoff appearances between 1981 and 1990, including eight division championships, becoming the second dynasty of the post-merger NFL. The 1980s also produced the 1985 Chicago Bears, who posted an 18–1 record under head coach Mike Ditka, colorful quarterback Jim McMahon, and Hall of Fame running back Walter Payton and won Super Bowl XX in dominating fashion. The Washington Redskins and New York Giants were also top teams of this period; the Redskins won Super Bowls XVII and XXII and the Giants claimed Super Bowls XXI and XXV. As in the 1970s, the Oakland Raiders were the only team to interrupt the Super Bowl dominance of other teams; they won Super Bowls XV and XVIII (the latter as the Los Angeles Raiders).
Following several seasons with poor records in 1980s, the Dallas Cowboys rose back to prominence in the 1990s. During this decade, the Cowboys made post season appearances every year except for the seasons of 1990 and 1997. From 1992 to 1996, the Cowboys won their division championship each year. After Conference championships by division rivals New York (1990) and Washington (1991), the Cowboys won three of the next four Super Bowls (XXVII, XXVIII, and XXX) led by quarterback Troy Aikman, running back Emmitt Smith, and wide receiver Michael Irvin. Their streak was interrupted by the 49ers, who won their league-leading fifth title overall with Super Bowl XXIX; however, the Cowboys' victory in Super Bowl XXX the next year also gave them five titles overall. The era of NFC dominance was closed out by the Green Bay Packers who, under quarterback Brett Favre, won Super Bowl XXXI, their first championship since Super Bowl II in the late 1960s.
1997–2000: The AFC rises again Super Bowl XXXII saw quarterback John Elway and running back Terrell Davis lead the Denver Broncos to an upset victory over the defending champion Packers, snapping the NFC's thirteen-game winning streak. This signaled the start of a new streak for the AFC, in which AFC teams won eight of the following ten Super Bowls. The Broncos defeated the Atlanta Falcons the following season in Super Bowl XXXIII in Elway's final game; after an NFC win by the St. Louis Rams in Super Bowl XXXIV, the AFC came back with wins by the Baltimore Ravens and New England Patriots.
2001-2007: The Patriots Dynasty The Patriots became the dominant team throughout the early 2000s, winning the championship three out of four years early in the decade. They would become only the second team in the history of the NFL to do so. In Super Bowl XXXVI, first-year starting quarterback Tom Brady led his team to a 20–17 upset victory over the Rams. Brady would go on to win the MVP award for this game The Patriots also won Super Bowls XXXVIII and XXXIX defeating the Carolina Panthers and the Philadelphia Eagles respectively. This four year stretch of Patriot dominance was only interrupted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' Super Bowl XXXVII title.
In the 2007 season, the Patriots became the first team in NFL history to have a 16–0 record in the regular season and easily marched through the AFC playoffs. They were heavy favorites in Super Bowl XLII, but they lost that game to the New York Giants 17-14, in large part due to a play that would become known as the Helmet Catch, in which Giants receiver David Tyree caught an Eli Manning pass by securing it against the side of his helmet. This pass would set up the eventual game-winning touchdown.
2007-Present: Parity The second half of the 2000s featured parity among both conferences. The Pittsburgh Steelers and Indianapolis Colts continued the era of AFC dominance by winning Super Bowls XL and XLI. Two years later the Steelers won an NFL record sixth Super Bowl championship in Super Bowl XLIII. With three NFC teams logging Super Bowl victories in the four seasons following Super Bowl XLI (the New York Giants, New Orleans Saints, and Green Bay Packers), the NFC has shown increased parity when it comes to the League championship.
The Super Bowls of the late 2000s are marked by the performances of the several of the winning quarterbacks. Peyton Manning, Eli Manning, Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers, and all added championships and Super Bowl MVP awards to their lists of individual accomplishments.
