National Football League, and Bad Bunny, fans will pack Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, tomorrow, Feb. 8, for Super Bowl LX gridiron and halftime action. (Screen shot from TPS video)
We’re a day away from Super Bowl LX. Have you placed your bets yet? A lot of the projected record-setting $1.76 billion in legal wagers will be made on game day, Sunday, Feb. 8.
A good number of them will be proposition bets.
Popular prop bets: Better known as prop bets, these wagers are not just on what will happen during the game and halftime at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. Money is being placed on the wild and wide-ranging events that are ancillary to the National Football League gridiron action.
They include such game minutiae, such as which team will score first, which player will catch the first touchdown pass, whether a team’s star player will catch or run for a specific number of yards, or what will be the longest field goal kicked.
Then there are the prop bets that have nothing to do with the actual Seattle Seahawks’ or New England Patriots’ game plans. Annual prop bet standards include —
- How long it will take for the national anthem singer to finish the song? Charlie Puth is doing the honors this year. And that’s just one of the Star-Spangled Banner bets that bookies are taking.
- Will the coin toss come up heads or tails? Will the coin toss winner defer?
- What color Gatorade will be poured over winning players and coaches? Red, blue and green all have a shot since those hues are part of the Patriots’ and Seahawks’ uniforms.
- Will the winning coach thank god or his family first? Or neither?
- Which celebrities will attend? And much air time will they get from NBC?
Halftime prop potential and controversy: Then there’s the halftime show, which is when a lot of viewers finally tune in. It also provides myriad prop bet options.
Bad Bunny’s appearance has been a flashpoint in a country that’s already divided over much more than the annual match-up of two professional football teams. So, it’s no surprise that his performance is getting added attention from gamblers.
Donald J. Trump immediately denounced the NFL’s choice of the charismatic Puerto Rican singer/songwriter/producer, whose legal name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio.
But the NFL’s choice of the most streamed artist was validated when Martínez made music history at last weekend’s 68th Grammy Awards. His album Debí Tirar Más Fotos won the top award, Album of the Year, becoming the first non-English recording to do so. It also is the first album to win Album of the Year at both the Grammys and Latin Grammys. And Martínez work was named Best Música Urbana Album, and its song “EoO” won Best Global Music Performance.
But to some, the musical plaudits don’t matter.
Bad Bunny’s decision not to play an U.S. arenas during his Debí Tirar Más Fotos because of concerns that his fans could be subject to potential Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activities was part of the reason for Trump’s dismissal of the artist. Martínez’s criticism of ICA at the Grammys ramped up the situation leading to the Super Bowl.
They’ve also added a new wrinkle to prop bets, particularly those that are part of the emerging prediction markets. The Athletic takes a look at some of “the most unusual, interesting and inflammatory betting markets — ahem, ‘investment opportunities’ — on prediction markets that relate to the Super Bowl.”
They include not only possible Bad Bunny remarks about ICE during the halftime show, but also his apparel choices during his performance.
Super Bowl super expensive commercials: Although we already know most, if not all, the companies that are running television ads during Super Bowl LX, the prediction markets still have betting options here.
If you’re more interested in the commercials themselves than betting on them, you can check out YouTube previews by TotalProSports (better known as TPS), Entertainment Tonight (ET), ESPN, and NPR.
All gambling winnings are taxable: Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t remind you (again) that if any of your wagers, be they strictly sports/Super Bowl related or some weird and fun prop bet, pay off, the amounts are taxable income.
Yep, I am repeating the main point of my Feb. 5 post “Winning bets, on Super Bowl Sunday and the rest of the year, are taxable income.”
So keep track of how much you pocket after Sunday’s big game (and the rest of 2026), and include the amount of all your gambling proceeds when you file your tax return with the Internal Revenue Service next year.
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