ESPN: Sad News” 49ers Star Player Including Christian McCaffrey In….

More than $300 billion has been bet with American sportsbooks since 2018, when the U.S. Supreme Court released a ruling that sparked widespread expansion of legal betting. Now, for the first time, the Super Bowl — the most heavily bet single game in U.S. sports — is coming to Las Vegas.

In the first week since the matchup was set, there was at least one million-dollar bet, a six-figure wager on the coin flip (tails never fails!) and a slew of Taylor Swift-related prop offerings from sportsbooks.

Bigger and wilder bets are expected, and ESPN’s sports betting team, led by writers Doug Greenberg and David Purdum, will follow it all in this updating file that’s ripe for bookmarking.

Good luck!

Travis Kelce to score a touchdown (Even) is the most popular straight prop and the second-most popular prop included in Parlay+ betting slips at ESPN BET, trailing only Christian McCaffrey to score a touchdown (-230). The second-most popular straight prop is Deebo Samuel over 2.5 rushing attempts (-155), which, by virtue of opening at +105, has seen the biggest line movement of any prop at the sportsbook.

Other popular straight prop bets include Brock Purdy over 0.5 total interceptions (-115), Deebo Samuel to score a touchdown (+160), and Isiah Pacheco to score a touchdown (-120), with the latter two also serving as popular Parlay+ plays, along with Patrick Mahomes over 1.5 total passing TDs (-150).

For the full game, ESPN BET has 70% of spread bets on the Chiefs and 71% of total bets on over 47.5 points (-110).

Bettors are expecting a big game from Patrick Mahomes. The over on Mahomes’ passing touchdowns (1.5 -160o) and rushing yards (26.5 -120u) have each attracted extremely lopsided early action at BetMGM: 99% of the money is on the over on passing TDs and 97% of the money is on the over on his rushing yards.

The most-lopsided player prop on 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy as of Tuesday at BetMGM was on his interceptions: 99% of the money wagered is on Purdy to throw over 0.5 interceptions in the Super Bowl.

The SuperBook at Westgate Las Vegas posts its giant suite of Super Bowl prop bets on Thursdays, 10 days ahead of the Super Bowl and annually attracts a line of a few dozen wise guys who wait their turn to place up to two $2,000 limit wagers before returning to the back of the line.

“The people betting on Thursday obviously look at things a little differently than the public,” said Chase Michaelson, who last week worked his way through SuperBook’s process of creating odds on hundreds of Super Bowl prop for the second time since joining company.

After attending Michigan State, Michaelson, 26, landed in Las Vegas toward the end of the pandemic and joined the SuperBook oddsmaking staff in 2021. Last year’s Super Bowl between the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs was his first helping make props at the SuperBook.

“The biggest thing that I would say I learned is to look beyond the obvious,” Michaelson said.

This year, the SuperBook posted its opening prop odds a few hours earlier than normal to accommodate local TV. The change in start time coincided with the second-half of a slew of early college basketball games going to halftime, requiring oddsmakers to post lines for the second half. At the same time, the wise guys were stepping up to the counter, firing aways $2,000 limit bets on everything from Deebo Samuel over receptions and yards to over on 3.5 combined field goals.

“It was a little chaotic because the bets are flying in on that stuff at the same time,” Michaelson said. “I think I typed in the wrong thing on something but realized it quickly.” Michaelson said the limit bettors bet over 74.5 on the combined yardages of all touchdowns scores in the Super Bowl, moving the number to 78.5.

“That’s a pretty significant move on something like that,” he said. “That was a pretty sharp group on that.

“Purple” has separated itself as the clear-but favorite to be the color of Gatorade dumping on the winning coach, but underdog “Orange” was attracting from bettors. Orange had attracted 33% of the money wagered on the prop as of Monday at BetMGM, more than Purple, Blue and Clear/Water combined. You can wager on there not being a Gatorade Bath at 20-1.