It's still unclear whether
The Greek Sportsbook, which established a world record when it posted a phenomenal 303 propositions on the 2003 Super Bowl, will exceed that mark this year. But no matter the number, the web site promises to offer some of the most challenging and intriguing props ever posted on professional football's ultimate game.
"The Super Bowl is the single largest wagering event each year and offering every conceivable way to bet the game is the essential," said Spiros Athanas, owner of
The Greek Sportsbook. "Players have come to know that if you can bet it,
The Greek Sportsbook will offer it."
Of course, time was, there weren't many more ways to bet the Super Bowl than by risking a few crumpets on the side and the total. So then, how exactly, did this wagering wackiness get started?
It was more than two decades ago, sometime back in the late 1970s when he was busy running the famed Hole on the Wall sports book at the old Castaways Hotel, that the late Sonny Reizner, one of the legendary figures in Nevada's glorious betting history, thought if might be a good idea to give football a little wagering facelift.
"One day I just decided to try something different so I put up all sorts of crazy, or what in that day was considered crazy, football propositions on a parlay card," recalled Reizner, who began making bets against other fans at Boston's Fenway Park in the early '40s under a large sign that read, "No Gambling Allowed."
"I put an ad in the local paper and people came in and attacked the propositions. They just loved it. You could watch a game and from the very first kickoff you were rooting for something to happen or not to happen. Soon other bookmakers began coming up with ideas of their own and after that everybody was doing it."
And how. Proposition wagering has expanded so dramatically over the past 20 some years that a Super Bowl wagering menu that once was considered ambitious after money-line wagers, totals and halftime wagers were added to straight pointspread bets, now seems strangely mundane. These days, as
The Greek Sportsbook proved last year, there are hundreds of ways to bet the Super Bowl.
In fact, the list of propositions offered by
The Greek Sportsbook on Super Bowl XXXVII was so staggering that there were 28 categories. What's more, bettors didn't even have to wait until the opening kickoff to collect on their first wagers. That's because they could bet on which team would win the coin toss, which team would receive the opening kickoff and, even, whether the coin would land on its head or its tail. (You might not want to spend too much time analyzing that last one).
But while the most rudimentary knowledge of mathematics would suggest that any coin toss is a 50/50 proposition, that wasn't always the way the gimmick was bet.
"I know it's crazy but one year I actually had so much money on 'heads' that I had to move the line a nickel to try to get some action on 'tails'," admitted one Las Vegas sports book director.
The Greek Sportsbook offered props involving more than two dozen individual players, including the Raiders Rich Gannon, Jerry Rice and Charlie Garner, as well as Buccaneers Brad Johnson, Keyshawn Johnson and Mike Alstott.
Gamblers could choose their own pointspread or total (with corresponding money lines) or bet on which player would score the game's first touchdown. There were props on number and length of field goals, as well as total fumbles, touchdowns and touchdown passes.
You could wager on which team would have the most turnovers, throw the first interception, or get the first penalty. You could even bet on whether the first challenge by a coach resulted in the call being overturned.
Incredibly, the end of the game didn't even signal the end of the wagering. Bettors holding tickets on which player would be named Super Bowl MVP had to wait to hear Tampa Bay's Dexter Jackson say the words, "I'm going to Disneyland" before cashing their tickets.
What will
The Greek Sportsbook do this year? Stay tuned.
ODDS AND ENDS: Sometimes the Super Bowl wackiness goes way beyond the wagering. Take Super Bowl XXIX in 1995 when Dallas, -13 1/2, failed to cover in a 27-17 win over Pittsburgh.
That was the same year that the NFL, citing the presence of gambling aboard ship, warned players that fines and suspensions would be levied on those who participated in a Super Bowl excursion offered by a company called Platinum Plus Gentleman's Casino Cruise, out of Miami.
Organizers of the event promised that some 50 former and current players of the day, including Lawrence Taylor, Roger Craig and Jim Brown, would be involved in the venture.
The cruise, which carried a price tag of $750 to $2,000, depending on the level of accommodations, also featured 200 naked showgirls, a nude limbo contest and a pool full of Jell-O.
And the NFL is worried about gambling?
