by The Nevada Independent Wednesday, February 5, 2025 – 7:43am

By Howard Stutz — When it was clear Sunday’s Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans would feature the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles, Red Rock Resorts Vice President of Sports Betting Jason McCormick began to worry.

The teams met in the Super Bowl two years ago in Phoenix, which resulted in Nevada sportsbooks’ second-lowest wagering total in the last five NFL championship games — $153.2 million.

Five years earlier, the Eagles beat the New England Patriots in a Super Bowl played in Minneapolis. At the time, the game produced the highest wagering handle ever seen by Nevada — $158.6 million. However, the Eagles’ upset win led to the most lopsided result experienced by sportsbooks in more than 10 years, with gamblers collecting 99.3 percent of all wagers.

“Two of the worst Super Bowls for Nevada in the last dozen years involved the Philadelphia Eagles,” McCormick said. “Nevada sportsbooks have not been fans of the Eagles. They haven’t been a winning solution for us. Hopefully, we can flip the script a little bit.”

The Super Bowl has long been one of Las Vegas’ busiest weekends. Northern Nevada sportsbooks often benefit when the San Francisco 49ers participate or the game is played in the Bay Area.

Several six- and seven-figure wagers have already been placed on the game, according to sportsbook operators. Also, hundreds of normal to outlandish proposition wagers are available — such as predicting the winner of the opening coin toss, who scores the first touchdown, the total number of field goals and how many songs Kendrick Lamar performs at halftime.

But the safest bet (not listed by the sportsbooks) is that Nevada’s Super Bowl wagering record of more than $185.6 million — set last year when the game was played at Allegiant Stadium — will not be broken.

McCormick suggested that having the game in Las Vegas was the overriding factor last year.

Allegiant Stadium is an easy walk from the Strip, where resorts were filled beyond the normal Super Bowl crowd. Some 30,000 football fans paid $30 a ticket to attend Super Bowl week’s opening night with both teams in attendance.

Mandalay Bay was the primary spot for all things Super Bowl. The convention complex was turned into the 700,000-square-foot Super Bowl Experience — an indoor NFL theme park that attracted fans in the days leading up to the game.

McCormick said the 49ers drew bettors because of the team’s Northern Nevada fan base.

Before last year’s Super Bowl, Nevada sportsbooks saw their largest handle in 2022, when $179.8 million was bet on the Los Angeles Rams and Cincinnati Bengals. The game was played at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles and the Rams won 23-20. The sportsbooks won $11 million, holding 6.2 percent of wagers.

“When the game is in California, Nevada’s sportsbooks do well,” McCormick said.

Analysts are projecting between $1.5 billion and $1.7 billion will be wagered legally on Sunday’s game.

“The Super Bowl is the U.S. sports betting industry’s single-largest betting event every year, alone accounting for nearly 1 percent of the industry’s total annual handle, according to our estimates,” Chris Krafcik of Eilers & Krejcik Gaming wrote in a research note.

One gaming company is feeling confident about the game being in New Orleans. Caesars Entertainment spent $435 million to renovate its Caesars New Orleans near the French Quarter, including the addition of a 5,700-square-foot sportsbook. Through a multi-year naming rights deal, the company placed the Caesars name on the New Orleans Superdome, where the game will be played for the 11th time.

Kenneth Fuchs, Caesars’ senior vice president and chief product officer for digital gaming, said Las Vegas gave the company marketing ideas. 

“We’ve been a part of the New Orleans community for a long time, so this is a celebration week,” he said. “Every shot of the beautiful New Orleans skyline will be a spotlight on the Caesars Superdome.”

— The Nevada Independent. Go here for updates to this and other Nevada Independent stories.