What Won’t Happen At The Super Bowl

The Super Bowl is the biggest sports betting event of the year, at least for sportsbooks that serve a North American client base (in Europe its the Champions League soccer final).  In light of this, it’s obvious that sportsbooks want to give their players as many Super Bowl betting opportunities as possible which has led to a myriad of proposition bets on every aspect of the game itself as well as on things that don’t happen on the playing field like TV ratings and the halftime show.  One popular form of Super Bowl proposition wager posits a question which the bettor must choose in the affirmative or negative.  For example:
 

Will each team score a touchdown in the first quarter?
 

Typically a moneyline accompanies the ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ to reflect the probability of the event occurring.  Since its easy to research many of these propositions and the bet prices often reflect public perception more than true probability you can frequently find good betting value on what may initially seem like an outlandish proposition bet.
 

We’ll get more into the specifics of these in the leadup to the game itself, but in this article we’re going to look at some events that could show up in proposition bets that have never occurred in 45 Super Bowl games:
 

SNOW: There has never been snow during a Super Bowl, which isn’t really surprising since the league insists on holding the game in a warm weather venue or a domed stadium.  There’s been rain and even drizzle, but never snow.  Given that annual snowfall in the Dallas area is roughly 2.5 inches per year it’s highly unlikely to happen this year, and the retractable roof at Cowboys Stadium makes snowfall during the game even more improbable.
 

ALL WILD CARD SUPER BOWL: There has never been a Super Bowl contested between two wild card teams.  This year it’s still theoretically possible, though unlikely, and would require the New York Jets beating the New England Patriots on Sunday.
 

A SHUTOUT: There’s never been a shutout in a Super Bowl.  Miami lost Super Bowl VI to the Dallas Cowboys 24-3, and that’s as close as any team has come to being shutout.  Incidentally, the Dolphins are also the only team to not score a touchdown in the Super Bowl.
 

A PUNT RETURN TOUCHDOWN: This is a very likely prop bet topic and while there’s been several kickoff returns for a touchdown there’s never been a punt return TD.
 

OVERTIME: There’s been a number of close calls, but a Super Bowl has never been decided in overtime.  This is another one you’ll definitely see as a Super Bowl betting proposition.
 

Obviously the fact that something hasn’t occurred in the past doesn’t mean it won’t happen in the future, but it’s difficult to bet on something that has never happened.  We’ll have plenty of in-depth coverage of the specific prop bets once they’re posted, but we’ll need to be getting a great price to take a position that anything listed above will occur.