Super Bowl Betting Guide for 2022

Apart from the Finals at the World Cup and the European Championships, there aren’t many single-day sporting events in the world bigger than the NFL’s Super Bowl. And when you focus just on North America, it’s not even close. And for this reason, the Super Bowl is also a betting bonanza, with punters and sportsbooks alike trying to take advantage of the craze.

A way that sportsbooks can entice punters to make Super Bowl bets with them is by providing prospective clients with bonuses and promotion offers. Most sportsbooks offer these kinds of deals all-year round, but come Super Bowl time, the number of offers out there grows exponentially.

Some common types of Super Bowl bonuses include but are not limited to:

• Welcome bonuses – the sportsbook will match your first deposit up to a certain number when you join their betting site
• Odds boosts – odds are boosted for certain Super Bowl props or picks
• Parlay incentives – sportsbook will boost your payout when you make a parlay bet
• Free bets – sportsbook will offer a free bet, usually worth $10-$50 on any Super Bowl prop, and many more!

However, most of these offers come with terms and conditions, so be sure to get familiar with those before agreeing to anything!

The Super Bowl is a massive global event that sees as much betting action as any single sporting event. Bettors have a huge variety of betting options when it comes to the big game, but for a beginner, the different types of bets can be confusing. For those who don’t know what to bet on the Super Bowl, here’s a breakdown of the different types of bets you can make.

• Moneyline: The Moneyline bet is simple. It is a straight-up bet on who is going to win the game. If your team wins, you make the money, if they lose, you don’t.
• Point Spread: The point spread is a bet where you bet on whether a team will win/lose by a specific margin. For example, the Los Angeles Rams are currently favoured at -4. This means they would need to win by five or more points to cover the spread. If the Bengals lose by three or less or win, the Rams don’t cover the spread.
• Total Points (Over/Under): For this wager, you’re betting whether the two teams will combine to go over or under a total amount of points scored in a game.
• Prop Bets: For the Super Bowl prop bets are a huge betting option. Prop bets cover a massive amount of things, like how many yards a certain player will throw for, how many touchdowns a certain player will score, or who will score the first touchdown. There are more props than can be listed out here, and in the Super Bowl, many of them cover non-football related aspects of the game. This can include details of the halftime show, broadcasters’ commentary, and the length of the national anthem, among many other things.
• Parlay Betting: Parlay betting is when you combine multiple bets to increase the odds. This means if one of the bets you combined in the parlay misses then the whole bet fails even if all other aspects hit. It is a somewhat riskier type of betting.

Betting option beginners should avoid

For the best online Super Bowl betting experience, there are certain types of bets beginners should avoid. If you’re a beginner it’s probably best to steer clear of the deeper game props like quarter scoring or player props and focus more on general bets such as the Moneyline, the point total, or the point spread. Beginner NFL bettors will also enjoy putting down a few shekels on some fun Super Bowl prop bets like the length of the anthem or what order the halftime show artists will perform in to give the game an extra little flavor.

The NFL playoffs have changed pretty drastically recently, with a third Wild Card team making it into the playoffs in each conference, bringing the total of teams that make it to the postseason up from the previous 12 (6 from each conference) to now 14 (7 from each conference) out of 32 teams.

This also meant a restructuring of the tournament so that instead of the top two seeds in each conference getting a bye in the first round of the playoffs, only the top seed from the AFC and the NFC will get that crucial extra week off.

In both conferences: the top seed in the conference gets a bye during round 1 or the Wild Card round of the playoffs, which will see No. 2 host No. 7, No. 3 host No. 6, and No. 4 host No. 5. In other words, the three division winners who did not earn the top seed will host the three Wild Card teams from their conference.

In round 2 or the Divisional Round, the No. 1 seed will then host the lowest ranked team that emerges from the Wild Card round, with the other two winners fighting it out. The winners of those two games then square off in the Conference Championships, with the prize there being a trip to the Super Bowl to take on the other conference’s representative. Apart from the Super Bowl, which is played at a neutral site, the home team for every playoff game is always the higher-seeded team.

What did we have this NFL Playoffs season?

The NFL Playoffs were a wild ride this year, as they always are. Fourteen teams entered; two now remain. It was a playoff filled with upsets and shocking results, culminating in a Super Bowl that no one had projected. The Los Angeles Rams were picked by some to make it this far, although the vast majority had the defending champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers or the dominant Green Bay Packers representing the NFC. Meanwhile, the Cincinnati Bengals were not given a chance by any experts. It was the Kansas City Chiefs or the Buffalo Bills most people saw representing the AFC.

There were several great showdowns leading up to the Championship Games. The Los Angeles Rams nearly blew a 27-3 lead to the Buccaneers before a perfectly thrown ball from Matt Stafford to Cooper Kupp sent the Rams to the NFC Championship. The Kansas City Chiefs and the Buffalo Bills went punch-for-punch in an overtime thriller, ending with a Chiefs walk-off touchdown.

The Bengals played the Titans tight, with a walk-off field goal leading them to a showdown against the Chiefs. The 49ers shocked the Packers in Lambeau in a true stunner. This set up a game against the Rams.

The Chiefs were heavily favoured in their game against the Bengals. The game started as everyone had predicted, with the Chiefs blowing out the Bengals to the tune of a 21-3 lead. It looked like the Bengals miracle run was coming to a definitive end. But Joe Burrow and a feisty defence kept at it, and the Bengals rallied all the way back to take the lead. A field goal by Kansas City’s Harrison Butker pushed the game to overtime, but a Mahomes interception to Jessie Bates set up a game-winning kick from Bengals playoff hero Evan McPherson to send the Bengals to their first Super Bowl since 1989.

The San Francisco 49ers vs the Los Angeles Rams was a tightly contested game dictated mostly by the defence. The 49ers, whose run game propelled them to this point, could not get it going against the Rams. Yet they carried a 17-7 lead into the fourth quarter due to strong defence and timely plays from Deebo Samuel and George Kittle. However, the Rams found their groove in the fourth quarter. Stafford and his two top receivers, Cooper Kupp and Odell Beckham Jr., led a ferocious comeback. A dropped interception from the 49ers set up a field goal from the Rams, and an interception sealed the Rams’ ticket to the Super Bowl.

The final is set as the Los Angeles Rams host the Cincinnati Bengals in SoFi Stadium.

The Super Bowl is a huge event for sports betting, so it’s smart to try and go in with one or two strategies to help ensure you have success betting on the Super Bowl. Here are a couple of our favourites:

• Early Outright Bets: A nice way to give yourself great odds on a top Super Bowl contender is to make an early outright bet on a couple of your favourites (one from each conference is usually smart) when the odds are usually at their highest even for the top teams due to the uncertainty of the offseason. If you have a feeling about a team and they hit a rough patch during the regular season (like the Chiefs this year) putting down on their outright odds to win the Super Bowl at that point (when the odds are likely higher due to poor current form) would be a smart bet as well.
• Follow The Line: There are two full weeks between when the Super Bowl participants are decided and when the game is played, so there’s tons of time for the odds and lines to move and shake one way or the other. Historically, most of the line movement happens shortly after the odds are announced and again in the final 24-48 hours before game time. If you’ve got a number on your mind, simply follow the lines closely during those time periods until they hit your number or at least come close.
• What’s The Script?: When making several bets on a game, it’s smart to consider what kind of game it’s going to be. What kind of game script are you expecting? If you’re expecting a shootout, a bet on the over for the game’s point total should be supplemented with over bets on player passing touchdowns and receiving and rushing yards. This way, if you’re correct about the type of game it’s going to be, you’re winning big without necessarily betting too big.
• Be Safe: The most important strategy is two pronged: don’t over-gamble, and play with a reputable sportsbook. The days and weeks leading up to the Super Bowl are rife with scams and shady businesses shouting from the rooftops, so ensure you’re making your Super Bowl bets with an established, well-known bookmaker. And, more importantly, give yourself a betting budget before the big game so that you can have all the betting fun you can but within your limits.
• Bet with your brain, not your heart: When you’re betting, as painful as it can be, don’t be which team you want to win, bet which team you think will win. Be impartial, and bet the team that you truly believe has the best shot.
• Look at performance trends: In the Super Bowl, both teams are playing at a high level, so this mostly applies to player props. Look at players’ recent performances, especially in the playoff games. They’ll let you know how those players handle the brighter spotlight and the level they’re currently at.
• Matchups are key: Football is a matchup-based game. Take a look at things like teams rushing defence vs the rushing offence they’re playing to find statistics that might lead you to exploitable matchup-based bets.

When: 6:30 PM EST, February 13th, 2022

Where: SoFI Stadium, Inglewood, California (Home of both the Los Angeles Rams and the Los Angeles Chargers)

Half-time Show: Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar, Mary J. Blige, & Eminem

Where Can I Watch?: Canadians can stream the Super Bowl on DAZN or NBC’s service Peacock or you can watch it on cable on NBC, CTV, or TSN.