Super Bowl coin toss history: Winners, heads or tails, final game results

Game update: The Seahawks called tails in the opening coin toss, but it came up heads. The Patriots elected to defer to the second half, which means they will kick off to open the game.

Super Bowl Sunday is upon us! The world will be waiting to see who wins between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots, but even before the game gets going, the two sides will conduct the coin toss. It will determine who starts with the ball, and the spotlight is as bright as can be on the Super Bowl.

The coin toss does not guarantee anything, but it can put a team in position to get some momentum at a key time. More and more we’re seeing teams that win the toss choose to defer and receive the ball in the second half to get a double-dip at the end of the second quarter and the beginning of the third quarter. However, if a team feels like their offense can get out hot, they might choose to receive first to get early momentum.

Sports betting has been legal in much of the United States for most of the past seven years. Prior to that, it was legal in Nevada dating to well before the Super Bowl history. Even when sports betting was illegal across most of the country, people would visit offshore sportsbooks or their local bookie to place their Super Bowl wagers.

One such bet is the coin toss result prop bet. Dating back to defensive lineman William “The Refrigerator” Perry getting odds to score a touchdown in Super Bowl 20, prop bets have turned into all the rage. For the coin toss, one can bet on whether it will turn up heads or tails, which team will win it, whether that winning team called the toss, and if the winner of the coin toss will go on to win the game.

Looking back through history up through Super Bowl 59, the coin toss has resulted in heads 28 times and tails 31 times. Although the choice is viewed as a 50/50 proposition, the Stanford Mathematics and Statistics departments conducted a study that showed a coin toss is actually more like a 51/49 proposition based on whatever side is up before the flip. The study assumed the coin was caught, but in the Super Bowl, the referee lets the coin hit the ground and bounce to its final position.

The Chiefs won the toss each of the past three years, with tails coming up twice and heads coming up once. The Chiefs lost last year as the coin toss winner, but prior to that the coin toss winner lost the Super Bowl eight straight years. Heading into Super Bowl 60,, the coin toss winner has won the game 25 times and lost the game 34 times.

Here’s a full list of the Super Bowl coin toss history, including heads or tails, the coin toss winner, and the game winner.