Betting Super Bowl Sunday By Kevin Van Lenten As EVERYBODY knows the end of January marks the time for the most coveted sporting event of the year,  the Super Bowl.  Super Bowl Sunday is probably the day of the year that most people feel the need to put a few dollars down on the big game.  Let’s face it there are two kinds of people on Super Bowl Sunday,  the couch gambler,  and the hard core gambler.  You can find the couch gambler surrounded by friends,  food,  and of course a few beers.  However,  the hard core gambler will be logged onto the internet for hours of gambling.  They will be placing bets on everything from the coin toss to the last play.  One thing about the Super Bowl is there are a million opportunities for the hard core to wager.  Odds are changing and moved to reflect what’s going on in the game all the time.  Honestly,  for some the super bowl is the Mecca of gambling. The idea of continuously gambling on Super Bowl Sunday is nothing new to the world of wagering,  however the ease and access of Online Sports Books have made this a lot less difficult.  The online options give the person the ability to have a plethora of knowledge on their computers when placing a wager.  Although,  the US government says its illegal for websites to accept wagers online,  most sports books avg. around 1.5 to 2 million in transactions.  And again that is the avg.,  there are some books that do a lot more.  I would say that about ¼ of that is bet while the game is in progress.   Just remember when I talk about bets that are being made while these games are in progress,  they usually are not going to affect of the outcome of the game.  These are propositions,  which are bets that occur on a situation within the game,  not the outcome. The betting line is the number of points that serve as the handicap,  this makes the game a little bit more even for the gambling community.  The super bowl betting line is listed with the favorite team with negative points,  for those that never knew.  Super bowl betting is always done against the spread.  Who wins the game is irrelevant when gambling.  The winning margin is the crucial factor in super bowl betting.  The favorite in super bowl betting must win the game by more points in the point spread.  The underdog in super bowl betting wins or loses by less than the point spread to cover the spread. So what can I bet on?  Super Bowl Sunday brings out the best of people and the online sports books.  Most online books have odds on the coin toss,  which team will score first,  to what song the opening musical act with sing before the game.  I haven’t seen this online yet,  but I know my friends and I bet on the first commercial,  Budweiser or another brand  (although is there really any other?),   we also bet on the length of the national anthem.  See basically Super Bowl Sunday gives everyone the option to have fun and gamble on every aspect of the game. One thing that I have found to be a lot of fun when betting football is something called Futures betting.  Very similar to buying futures contracts for stocks Online,  sports books offer odds and payouts at the beginning of the season as to who will be in the playoffs and ultimately knocking heads on Super Bowl Sunday.  Personally I love the idea of incorporating a Wall Street concept into sports gambling,  then again a lot of the people gambling online are in that occupation anyways so it makes sense.  Here’s basically the way in which this works:  a person can go online to a sports book and buy 100 contracts at $10 for the winner of the Super Bowl, another will sell 100 contracts for $5, then the sports book takes $500.  This might sound complicated but believe me it’s a lot of fun and definitely keeps you attention for the big game.  In fact most people end up buying futures for A LOT of games.  I guess the thrill of trading stocks isn’t enough now we can trade contracts on games.  I love it. The Super Bowl is definitely one of the most exciting times of the years for people gambling and sports books.  The thrill of the most watched event of the year with the fact that these online books are going to give you the ability to wager on so many tangibles within the game is awesome.  I hope before you go and throw a couple bucks down on Super Bowl Sunday that you take advantage of what is out there from the online books as far as research and different odds on propositions.   Regardless of whether your hanging out on the couch,  sitting in a bar,  or starring at a computer screen,   Super Bowl Sunday is definitely the biggest and most exciting gambling day of the year and will always be a day in which I certainly put a couple bucks down!