On the eve of Super Bowl Sunday, bettors began pushing more money behind the Seattle Seahawks, moving the spread to a pick'em on the betting board at some sportsbooks and forcing other books to adjust their lines lower. Bovada had the biggest spread at -2 for the Patriots, but it moved a half point to -1.5. It remains the best line for Seahawk bettors.
Super Bowl 2015: Odds move overnight with late Seattle money
Late Seattle money is move the Super Bowl betting lines closer to a Pickem game.
“A ton of Seattle money moving things,” said Kevin Bradley, sportsbook manager at Bovada.lv.
Others such as Bet365 of the UK slid from -1 to PK. Others held the line at -1 for the Patriots, with some books expecting a surge of late Seattle money coming today.
Two big questions remain: Where will the closing number land for bettors, and will it be the Patriots or the Seahawks holding the Vince Lombardi Trophy in the end? No Super Bowl in history has ever kicked off as a pick’em, and just two have seen the line close at less than two points.
New England was listed as a consensus 1-point favorite for Super Bowl XLIX prior to Saturday after Seattle opened as chalk for the second year in a row only to see the public side with the AFC champion Patriots in early betting. The NFC champion Seahawks remain small underdogs at a few spots, including online sportsbook Bovada, which has the defending Super Bowl champions +1.5 after sitting at +2 for most of the last two weeks.
The Wynn sportsbook in Las Vegas also still had New England at -1 on Saturday after moving them as high as -1.5 earlier in the week. The Golden Nugget in Vegas had Seattle at -1 for about six hours Saturday before dropping back down to Pick’em.
Therefore, it appears to be a solid bet that there will not be a favorite or underdog when Super Bowl XLIX finally kicks off. In eight of the past nine years, the winner of the big game has covered the point spread anyway, so there is a very good chance that will happen again here regardless of the closing number.
However, while the Patriots are three-time Super Bowl champions, the team has gone just 1-5-1 against the spread in seven previous appearances. If the Seahawks close as dogs, they will be the sixth team to do so while playing in a second consecutive Super Bowl. The previous five all lost the game and failed to cover the spread.
