Tom Brady pays -115 odds at Sports Interaction to win his fourth Super Bowl MVP award. (Photo credit: Keith Allison via Foter.com / CC BY-SA)
Ever since the Falcons and Patriots cruised to victory in their respective conference championship games, almost all the talk about the 2017 Super Bowl has been about the point spread.
However, betting the point spread is just one of many ways to do 2017 Super Bowl betting in Canada. Here’s a look at all of your options for betting the big game.
(Note: Provincial sports lotteries in Canada don’t offer all of these betting options. For the best 2017 Super Bowl betting in Canada experience, you should join an online sportsbook. See our list of top Super Bowl sportsbooks for Canadians here.)
Your Options For 2017 Super Bowl Betting In Canada
1. Point Spread
New England opened as a 3-point favourite over Atlanta, and the spread is expected to stay there because 3 is the biggest of all the key numbers in NFL betting.
In other words, oddsmakers are hesitant to move off of 3 points in a game of such magnitude because of the very good chance that the Patriots win the game by exactly 3 points.
If you take the Patriots -3, you’ll need them to win the game by more than 3 points to win your bet. If you bet the Falcons +3, you need them to win the game OR lose by less than 3.
2. Over/Under
Over/Under betting means betting whether there will be more (Over) or less (Under) points scored in the game than the Over/Under number (total) posted by the oddsmaker.
The Over/Under for the 2017 Super Bowl was set at an astronomical 59 points. To put that into perspective, the total for the 2016 Super Bowl between Carolina and Denver was set at 45.5. The Patriots and Falcons would need to combine for 2 more touchdowns to account for that 14-point difference.
However, since this is a matchup of the top two ranked offences in the NFL, there’s plenty of reason to expect some fireworks in this game. And it’s always a lot more fun cheering for points to be scored than it is cheering for defences.
3. Moneyline
Betting the moneyline means simply betting who will win the game. You don’t need to worry about by how many points either team wins by, but you can’t “cover the spread” if the underdog keeps things close either.
Canadian sportsbook SportsInteraction.com posted the Super Bowl 2017 moneyline as New England -160 and Atlanta +135. That means you’d have to bet $160 for every $100 you want to win on a New England victory, and that you could win $135 for every $100 you bet on Atlanta.
4. Live betting
Live betting has emerged as a tremendously popular way to bet on all sports, and it’s no different for the 2017 Super Bowl.
In live betting, the game odds change in real time based on the way the game is going. So if New England gets the ball first and scores a TD to go up 7-0, you might now be able to grab the Falcons +6 instead of the +3 you could get before the game started.
Or if you like the way the Patriots looked on offence and think the Falcons look like deer in the headlights, you could take New England -6. You’re getting worse odds, but at least you’ve had the chance to see both teams in action first.
5. Quarters betting
Instead of betting on the entire game, you can bet on the outcome of a particular quarter.
You can bet on which team will win that quarter, the point spread for that quarter, or even for the teams to tie in the quarter.
You can also bet on totals (Over/Under) for that quarter. Just a heads up that second and fourth quarters are generally higher-scoring quarters than the first and third, likely because teams aren’t usually starting at their own 25-yard line the way they usually do at the start of the first and third quarters.
6. First Half/Second Half betting
Just like quarters betting, you can bet on the result of the first or second half.
The 2017 Super Bowl first half betting lines are based heavily on the full-game line. Since the Patriots are a 3-point favourite on the full game, they’ll be around a 1-2 point favourite in the first half, and the total will be around 30 (half of 59).
Second half betting lines will be set during halftime and will be based largely on what happened in the first half and what each team’s mentality will be for the rest of the game. For example, if the Patriots are down 10 at halftime, they may be a 7-point favourite in the second half, even if they were just a 1-point favourite in the first half.
7. Alternate spreads
Point spread betting generally pays -110 odds (bet $110 to win $100), with the idea that you have a 50/50 chance of winning.
If you want to shoot for a bigger payday or if you want to increase your chances of winning your bet, alternate spreads may be for you.
By using alternate spreads, you can either ask your team to cover a more difficult point spread (at higher paying odds) or a much easier point spread (at lower paying odds).
8. Alternate over/under
Alternate Over/Under (totals) are the same concept as alternate point spreads, except it’s betting on the number of points that will be scored in the game.
If you think there’s a great chance that both teams light up the scoreboard, you might want to take a shot at the Over 63 on the alternate Over/Under instead. That pays about 1.5 to 1, instead of the 0.9 to 1 that you’ll get betting on the Over 59.
9. Teasers
Teasers in NFL betting allow you to move the point spread or total in your favour, usually by 6-7 points. Teasers pay close to even odds, but the catch is that you need to combine 2 outcomes onto one ticket (the point spread and the total) and get them both right to win.
By playing a 6-point teaser on New England, you could get the Patriots +3 and either Over 53 or Under 65. Or you could tease the Falcons up to +9 and have the Over 53 or Under 65 with it.
10. Parlays
The football game is the main attraction, but we Canadians know there’s much more to Super Bowl Sunday than just the pigskin.
There will be 3 NHL games earlier in the afternoon, and 3 NBA games as well – including the Raptors visiting the Nets. So if you want to make your afternoon more exciting and fatten the odds on your Super Bowl bets, you might want to try a parlay ticket instead.
Parlay simply means combining two or more outcomes onto the same ticket and needing to win them all to win your bet (similar to Proline and other provincial sports lotteries). In exchange for making it harder to win your bet, parlays pay better.
You can also parlay bets in the Super Bowl itself, such as the total and the point spread together.
11. Props
We left the most fun part til last – Super Bowl props!
Each year, online sportsbooks add more and more fun propositions that you can bet on. It’s no longer simply betting on who will win the coin toss or how the first points will be scored.
Below, we’ve listed a few examples of some Super Bowl props we’ve seen, along with links to the sportsbooks we saw them at.
Good luck and enjoy the game!!!
Sports Interaction 2017 Super Bowl Props
Pinnacle 2017 Super Bowl props
