At Super Bowl LX, gambling on football devoured football itself. 

As far as football games go, it was a pretty lame one. The Seattle Seahawks demoralized the New England Patriots in a 29-13 bummer that featured stunningly little competitive football until it ceased to be a competitive game. The Seahawks didn’t score the game’s first touchdown until three hours after kickoff; Drake Maye threw for 235 of his 295 yards in the fourth quarter. It was anticlimactic: as soon as the pre-game hype faded away, it was immediately clear that the Seahawks were the superior team. 

Nonetheless, a record $1.76 billion was wagered on the big game, according to the American Gaming Association. Beyond spreads and player prop bets, you could also bet on: the length of the national anthem (under 116.5 seconds), whether the announcers would say “tush push” (they didn’t), the first song of Bad Bunny’s halftime show (“Tití Me Preguntó”), and whether Alcatraz or the Golden Gate Bridge would be shown first on the broadcast (if you struggle with gambling addiction, call 1-800-GAMBLER for around-the-clock support). 

But when the Super Bowl’s diner menu of novelty bets brings millions of squares to the table, where do sharp bettors find value? What is it like to be a big-time gambler on the biggest gambling day of all time? To find out, we talked to Raheem Palmer, a professional sports bettor and the co-host of The Ringer Gambling Show. 

Playboy: What was your biggest takeaway from the game?

Raheem Palmer: The sportsbooks made a killing. The public always takes the over. With all the focus before the game on stars like Jaxon Smith-Njigba, there’s going to be a lot of action on him having a big game, but then he ends up going under on everything. Even if you look at content creators, a lot of times, they’re betting the overs because there’s often rules with sportsbook sponsors that don’t allow [them to promote] unders. 

PB: What were your biggest bets?

RP: My biggest bets were Patriots +4.5 and under 46.5 total points. I thought that the Pats’ defense would keep them in the game and then Drake Maye would make an explosive play or two that would push them over the hump. The lights were too bright for Drake Maye and ultimately it’s clear that the easy schedule was the reason they were here. I also had a few smaller ones on Drake Maye overs (which hit), Hunter Henry overs (which didn’t) and Kenneth Walker unders (which didn’t).

PB: Did you bet on any of the novelty lines?

RP: I stay away from those. My only special prop was that the second half of the game would be the higher-scoring half and I do that every year. Teams always take a while to settle into the game. 

PB: Is your process different when you’re betting on the Super Bowl?

RP: It’s just a regular game for me. These days, when it comes to the Super Bowl, it’s no longer a special game anymore. If you go back 10 years before gambling was legalized, the Super Bowl was the only game where you’d be able to find so many individual player prop bets. And since there was less attention on those props, you’d probably have an edge that you could attack. But now, there are props every single week of the season and I’m talking about them on the podcast, so even though it’s the Super Bowl, there’s nothing really special or new about it. Plus, I think the books in the market are a lot sharper now with their props because people are betting them every single week.

PB: Did you do anything special for the game?

RP: I went to Caesars with JJ [John Jastremski, his Ringer co-host]. Normally, I’d be at home in front of my computer, but JJ came to Vegas and wanted to do something. I hit up a casino host at Caesars and he got us tickets to an event in a ballroom. It was more of a gala-type atmosphere where we sat at our own tables and stayed in our little circle—it wasn’t like the main sportsbook where it’s set up like a movie theater and you feel the energy of the crowd.  

PB: Was it a good time?

RP: Since I wasn’t able to live bet as easily as I do at home, I was able to watch the game more as a fan. After Kenneth Walker broke his first big run in the first half, I was thinking of throwing something on him to win Super Bowl MVP at +300, but I couldn’t find it on the app. Overall though, it was very solid.

PB: How much did you bet?

RP: [casually gives a number that fills me with therapy-resistant anxiety] but I’ve slowed down compared to the past.