Sportsbooks suffer with Baltimore Super Bowl win

Missed penalty calls and sloppy play calling.

A weird safety play.

A weirder power outage that forced commentators to gab away for 35 minutes of dead airtime.

While many Vegas sportsbooks were reporting modest gains, the Baltimore upset was one of the worst cases for some online sportsbooks, including Bovada.

“It is not a secret that we did not have an ideal result last night, the Ravens winning outright really cost us on the moneyline and futures and it made two years in a row the book did not have a winning Super Bowl,” said Bovada sportsbook manager Kevin Bradley.

The non-call in the end zone that effectively ended the game kept the 49ers from getting another crack at the go-ahead score. With a first-and-goal, San Francisco had the chance to go ahead 36-34, but the refs kept their penalty flags in their pockets, much to coach Jim Harbaugh’s dismay.

While the 49ers would not have covered the 4-point spread with a TD, all the Raven moneyline and futures bettors would not have won their wagers.

The bizarre power outage also cost Bovada, which had a 20.5 over-under on the number of times commentators would say ‘Harbaugh.’

“I stopped counting once it hit 30, the power outage was no help on that one,” said Bradley.

Combining the moneyline action on Baltimore (Ravens to win the game outright, not just cover the spread) and late future bets when the Ravens were as high as 20/1 just a few weeks ago, it turned into a significant loss for the book.

The bizarre intentional safety in the waning moments of the game also cost the book, as a safety during the game paid out as an 8/1 prop at most places.

“One saving grace was the safety at the end of the game did not allow Baltimore to cover the alternate spread of them winning by 3.5 (paying out at 5/2 odds), which was our heaviest bet prop, so at least that went in our favor,” said Bradley.