NFL Super Bowl Betting

How it all started

The Super Bowl began as a showdown between the two rival leagues, the NFL and the AFL. Before that the NFL had seen off challenges from other rival leagues but when the AFL formed in 1960, forty years after the NFL had begun they found the newcomers too much to handle as the NFL stars were being pried away. So the two came to a merger agreement in 1966 which would go into effect in 1970. Part of the agreement stated that the winners of the two leagues formed after the merger would go head to head in a title match.

Why is it called a bowl? Post-season college football matches were called a bowl game after the original was hosted at California’s Rose Bowl (the stadium being shaped like a bowl unsurprisingly) and the name took off from there. When it came to the big match forged from the merger of the NFL and AFL, Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt just jokingly referred to it as the “Super Bowl” and the media took that and ran with it. The first official “Super Bowl” game with that name was the third one.

Super Bowl Venue

The Super Bowl moves around the USA from year to year and dates and stadiums are booked up to five years in advance of the games. Down the years there have been talks of expansion to potentially host it outside of the USA, such as in London. There are criteria which have to be met to host a Super Bowl such as the minimum number of seats and parking spaces close to the stadium. Temperature is another factor and it must be in a stadium that hosts an NFL team. There’s a lot of other stuff as well, like space needed for the NFL experience, infrastructure, costs and hotel space, and so on.

Who is the “home team”

There is an official home and away team for a Super Bowl and this is simple. The NFC representative is the home team in odd-numbered years, the AFC team in even-numbered years. All it does is give the home side the choice to wear their colour or the white jersey.

The half time show

Almost as popular as the game itself, there is a lot of focus on the half time show at a Super Bowl. The spectacles of modern day have come a long way from the entertainment in the early days of marching bands. Now it is common to have a famous celebrity to come out and sing the national anthem and there is usually a mini-concert performed by a music artist, which in the past has included U2, Michael Jackson, Madonna and infamously Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson.

Super Bowl Date

Book in that first Sunday in February as that is when the Super Bowl is hosted. The NFL season starts the first day after Labor Day (the first Monday in September) and between the Conference Championship games and the Super Bowl, there is a two week break.

History of Winners

The first ever winner of the Super Bowl was the Green Bay Packers who took down the Kansas City Chiefs back in January 1967 and they went out and blasted their way to a title defence the following year taking down the Oakland Raiders. In the third Super Bowl, the first game to played under that name, there was the first big upset as the New York Jets beat favourites the Baltimore Colts.

Among the leaders of the most successful franchises to have won the Super Bowl on multiple occasions, you can count the Pittsburgh Steelers, Dallas Cowboys, New England Patriots, Green Bay Packers, New York Giants and the San Francisco 49ers among them.

There have been some big winning streaks and through the mid seventies, it was the NFC on top winning five Super Bowls on the bounce and actually winning eight of nine between 1973 and 1981 inclusive, largely thanks to the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Oakland Raiders. The big turn around when the AFC started getting momentum came in 1985 and the AFC won thirteen straight Super Bowl matches.

2018 Super Bowl Review

The 2018 edition of the Super Bowl, which was Super Bowl LII, was all about whether or not the New England Patriots could go and defend their title. Or whether their opponents, the Philadelphia Eagles could get their first title. Right from the off, the Patriots were chasing the game. New England had topped out the AFC last season winning 13 of their 16 matches and were in their third Super Bowl appearance in four years.

They were led out once again by Tom Brady as the quarterback but not even he could pull them through the challenge. The Eagles also had posted a 13-3 record through their campaign in the NFC, but they had gone into the big match as underdogs. That was because their starting quarterback Carson Wentz went down with injury towards the end of the regular season. That meant they were playing with backup quarterback Nick Foles.

During the match, there was a bit of history created from Foles who became the first player to ever both throw and catch a touchdown in a Super Bowl game. He pulled off a trick play at the end of the second quarter, where he was left wide open after the ball was snapped directly to one of his teammates. He simply peeled away into the end zone, catching the resulting pass and the move came to be known as the Philly Special.

It’s the kind of thing that you really can only write about. Foles came in and stole the whole show, earning the MVP for the Super Bowl in leading the Eagles to a 41-33 victory over the Patriots. There were some great new Super Bowl records set in 2018. The combined yards gained of the two sides was the most ever in a Super Bowl match. There was only a record one punt during the entire match. The Patriots walked away with what will be an unwanted record of having the most points scored by a Super Bowl losing team. It was Philadelphia’s first championship title since 1960 and it was their first ever Super Bowl win.

2019 Super Bowl Preview

The Super Bowl is being hosted in Atlanta, Georgia in 2019 and lining up in the match are the New England Patriots and the Los Angeles Rams. The New England Patriots are in their third straight Super Bowl and it is they who are edging things in terms of favouritism in the match outright with bookmakers. Can they make up for their failure last year in the big match where they slipped to a defeat against the Philadelphia Eagles?

Veteran quarterback Tom Brady is looking to guide the franchise to their sixth Super Bowl title and that would as well, give him his sixth Super Bowl ring. The 41-year-old just keeps on going and has shown no signs of slowing up this season, posting another +4000 yards effort the campaign. If you’re looking for a player with big game experience then frankly no-one has more. Brady incidentally is just one of two players ever in the history of the NFL to have won five Super Bowl titles.

Opposing him will be a young upstart of 24-year-old Jared Goff for the Rams who is in only this third pro-season. This is only the fourth Super Bowl appearance that the Rams franchise have been in throughout their history. It is their first since making the move from St Louis back to Los Angeles a couple years ago. Interestingly their last Super Bowl appearance was back in the 2001 season when they were up against the New England Patriots. That they didn’t go well for them as they suffered a loss. From their three previous Super Bowl appearances, the Rams have won just once.

However, they have some star power in their line-up this season and what they have produced time and time again this season is a power offence. They ranked second overall in the NFL this season four points during the season and in yards gained in matches. They look to have the confidence and self-belief to really throw down the serious challenge to Brady and co. Going into the Super Bowl LIII the Rams look as if they could give as good as they are going to get.