Of the more than 400 proposition bets offered by the Westgate LV SuperBook one area that has carved out a niche is the cross-sports prop wager. These 64 wagers encompass achievements in different sports pitted against an aspect of the Super Bowl.
For example one of the props is Who Will Have More: Oklahoma City Thunder Paul George rebounds against the Lakers or combined number of touchdowns from New England and Philadelphia? The eighth-year basketball player is averaging 5.5 rebounds per game. The over/under on the game is 48, which means oddsmakers believe anywhere from six to seven touchdowns could be scored.
Many of the sporting events listed in the bets occur on the same day but some are for future sporting events. The Winter Olympics don’t start for a week after the big game but there is a bet on Who Will Have More: USA gold medals or combined first-quarter points by the Patriots and Eagles?
History of Cross-Sport Bets
The cross-sports bets didn’t really exist until the early 1990s. Westgate LV SuperBook Vice President Jay Kornegay said the idea came up for the concept at the 1994 Super Bowl. He told Business Insider that using basketball superstar Michael Jordan helped popularize it.
“When we put up the 49ers and Chargers in the 1994 Super Bowl, we put up “Who would score more points on Super Bowl Sunday — Michael Jordan or the 49ers?” and that was like the first cross-sports prop, where we took other events that were happening and connected it to something that could happen in the Super Bowl,” he said. “And it got a lot of attention and publicity, and people loved it, so we started adding more props.”
Now the only limit is the creativity of Kornegay’s staff. He said that around seven or eight people work on the more than 400 prop bets, including the 64 cross-sport ones.
“We are always thinking ‘What is going to create the most interest?’ because we don’t want to do all this work for a proposition that nobody bets, even though they bet every proposition on the board,” Kornegay told Business Insider. “But we want to make sure it gets some interest so we usually try to get some key players.”
Enticing, not Advised
The novelty of these bets is it marries two sports while stimulating action on the Super Bowl. They are attractive to amateur gamblers but the wise guys usually stay away from these because of their unstable nature and low pay offs.
Most of them list odds of anywhere from -110 to -150. Getting a +110 is about the best a gambler can hope for in most cases. There are a couple of entries at +120 and +130.
A rare exception is for any of these type of props is a +170 on Who Will Have More: The amount of English Premier League’s Newcastle goals against Crystal Palace or the total number of field goals by the Patriots and Eagles in the first quarter?
