Sportsbooks likely profited off the Philadelphia Eagles victory 40-22 against the Kansas City Chiefs in yesterday’s Super Bowl LIX.
Sportsbooks likely profited off the Philadelphia Eagle’s 40-22 victory against the Kansas City Chiefs in yesterday’s (9 February) Super Bowl LIX.
The surprise pummelling of the Patrick Mahomes-led Chiefs was a net positive for operators, according to an anonymous source at a major US sportsbook.
This contrasted with expectations ahead of the game, with many expecting there to be a tight contest.
Ethan Useloff, NFL trader at Fanatics Sportsbook, said before the game: “The spread at this one-point mark has seen two-sided action, reaffirming the notion bettors anticipate a tight Super Bowl LIX. The market is as close to pick’em now as we’ve seen.”
The source’s view was echoed by analysts at JMP Securities who said overall the gaming margins and outcome for sportsbooks appeared positive.
In the weeks leading up to the game JMP had predicted approximately $1.75bn would be wagered on the annual NFL league championship game, accounting for around 1% of 2025’s bets.
JMP also tracked player prop markets across several sports gaming platforms for the week leading up to the game, estimating player markets account for 50% to 60% of the total Super Bowl bets.
This included tracking the top 10 offered markets in the main screen across several platforms which JMP predicted accounted for about half of all prop activity and is a good measure for the overall outcome.
The analysts said: “We observed that throughout the week, the top 10 props did not materially change until Super Bowl Sunday. The first three days of the week had three player props hit out of the 10, while the remaining four days, including Super Bowl Sunday, only had two player props hit, indicating a bad day for bettors.
“With sports traders noting the outcome of the game as neutral to positive, including larger future liabilities on Kansas City, and our estimate that prop bets were a tailwind, we walk away from the most wagered-on event of the year with a constructive outlook and see 1Q25 estimates tracking ahead of expectations.”