Super Bowl Wagers: Sports Books Win For 15th Time In 16 Years

This article came from SB Nation Cleveland:
We can now officially put a ribbon on Super Bowl XLV. The game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers was a win for the sportsbooks - marking the 15th time in 16 years that sportsbooks came away as winners. The only time they lost was in 2007 when the New York Giants upset the New England Patriots.

According to RJ Bell of Pregame.com, $87.5 million was wagered in Nevada alone with $724,000 being won by the sportsbooks. It was the smallest haul by the 'books since 1998 when the Denver Broncos beat the Packers in Super Bowl XXXII.

"Packers and Over was by far the worst possible result for the sportsbooks, and even so they ended up net winners. This is a great example of the steep uphill climb the average player faces trying to win." said Bell.

An amazing stat, however is the fact that Las Vegas accounts for just 1% of the worldwide Super Bowl 'handle', or the total amount bet, and sportsbooks worldwide have won an estimated $11.5 billion on the Super Bowl since 1991.

The numbers can be confirmed by multiple sites, but Pro Football Talk has an interesting tidbit that I'd share:
Bettors did better and casinos did worse than usual on the Super Bowl this year: The Nevada Gaming Control Board reports that just under $87.5 million was wagered on Sunday’s game and sports books ended up coming out ahead by $724,176.

Although betting was up from the $82.7 million wagered on last year’s game, the casinos’ profit of less than 1 percent is far worse than the casinos usually do.

The only time in the last 10 years that Nevada casinos have lost money on the Super Bowl was the Giants’ upset of the Patriots in 2008, when the casinos lost a collective $2.5 million on $92 million bet. Other than that year, the Packers’ 31-25 victory over the Steelers (in which Green Bay covered the spread and the teams’ total of 56 points reached the over) was the worst Super Bowl for casinos in the last decade.

For the casinos, the best Super Bowl of the last 10 years came in 2005, when bettors wagered more than $90 million and casinos came out ahead by more than $15 million when the Patriots beat the Eagles.

1 percent profit for any company is pretty low. 2005 was a 17 percent profit, so that's pretty good.

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