The Kansas City Chiefs beat the San Francisco 49ers in overtime Sunday night to win their third Super Bowl title in five seasons and became just the eighth team in league history to repeat as champions.
The Chiefs entered this year’s Super Bowl as an underdog, something Vegas sportsbooks were hoping they would live up to.
“It’s strange to think of Patrick Mahomes having doubters, but a Chiefs team that wasn’t as dynamic as previous years left the oddsmakers with egg on their face for the third game in a row,” Pat Morrow, head oddsmaker at Bovada, told Fox News Digital after the big game.
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“While Kelce underperformed for most of the game and Pacheco was far from stellar, Patrick Mahomes once again did what only he can and carried his team to victory. Because there’s been no quarterback like him in history, it’s that difficult to actually quantify what we’re seeing with him.
“The 49ers were the better team on paper, and we even opened them as Super Bowl favorites for next season before the action moved Kansas City into the top spot. So, it’s possible we still haven’t learned our lesson.”
Most sportsbooks had the Niners favored by a marginal -1.5, but Mahomes, who won his third Super Bowl MVP, set the record straight as he held the Vince Lombardi Trophy at Allegiant Stadium.
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“Just know that the Kansas City Chiefs are never underdogs,” he said. “Just know that.”
Will Vegas ever learn?
When asked how the sportsbook fared, Marrow offered a blunt assessment.
“We got absolutely crushed,” he said.
The first-ever Super Bowl in Las Vegas resulted in record-breaking numbers for betting in the state.
The Nevada Gaming Control Board released figures Monday night announcing a record $185.6 million was wagered on the big game across Nevada’s 182 sportsbooks. This topped the previous record set in 2022 by nearly $6 million.
The sportsbooks did boast a win of $6.8 million, an increase from last year’s $4.3 million. But, according to ESPN, both those figures are drastically lower than the previous four Super Bowls with an average win of $13.2 million.
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