Super Bowl Odds are Tight in Vegas

Ultimately bettors side with Peyton Manning

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Peyton Manning during the AFC Championship game at Sports Authority Field at Mile High on January 19, 2014 in Denver, Colorado.

Oddsmakers had trouble picking a favorite to win the Super Bowl, but by the end of Sunday night bettors had put their money on Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos to win. With no clear cut favorite, Super Bowl XLVII between the Broncos and Seattle Seahawks will likely be one of the most evenly matched (and heavily bet) Super Bowls in years.

During early betting, the Seahawks were favored in many Vegas books by as little as two points. Other books had the Broncos as high as a three-point favorite. “We’re just trying to figure out what the market will be and get a feel of where money will go,” Jay Kornegay, who runs the LVH sports book and initially had the Seahawks favored, told ESPN. “At this point it doesn’t take a lot to move the line.”

Sports books adjusted their lines to try to balance the money on each team after bettors rushed to put their money on Denver, believing that Manning’s sure arm and cold weather temperatures in New York favor the Broncos. Most books swung from Seattle as a two-point favorite to Denver as a one-point favorite within an hour of the end of the San Francisco 49ers-Seahawks game.

Some expect this year’s Super Bowl to break the $98.9 million record bet in Nevada’s legal sports books last year.

[ESPN]