EmailPrintOpen Extended ReactionsThe betting total for Super Bowl LX is unusually low, but sportsbooks will be rooting for the final result to be even lower.At 45.5, according to DraftKings odds as of Friday afternoon, Sunday's matchup between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots is the ninth-lowest Super Bowl over/under in the past 40 seasons and the lowest since Super Bowl 50 between the Panthers and Broncos in 2016 (44), a 24-10 Denver win.All time, the over is 29-28-1, excluding Super Bowl I, which has total data missing, according to ESPN Research.Early action for this year's contest saw sharp bettors snap up the under across the sportsbook marketplace. At open, Caesars Sportsbook's head of football Joey Feazel said his book saw big money come in on the under at 46.5 and 46 before the number settled at 45.5, adding that, "45 is the key number there; don't see it going lower than that." He and other bookmakers are expecting a public surge on the over as the game approaches kickoff."It's a Super Bowl, so you're going to take money on the over, just how it goes," Feazel told ESPN. "People want to see an exciting game and I don't blame them, so you're going to see more action on the over."Other bookmakers agree with that sentiment and are beginning to see over money come in heading into the weekend: theScore Bet reports 58.4% of bets on the over, with DraftKings and BetMGM each reporting a little more than half of wagers supporting a higher-scoring game.John Ewing, media insights manager at BetMGM, expects the total will "continue to climb again as more casual bettors come in to place their wagers."Another reason sportsbooks are hoping for a low-scoring game is due to the cascade effect it would have on props. Anytime touchdown scorer is consistently the most-bet player prop, so a high-scoring contest would likely mean that many of those props could hit for bettors, chipping away at the sportsbook's profits on the game.The unquestioned leader in that market is Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who is -110 to get in the end zone, according to DraftKings, and is the most-bet player in the market at BetMGM and theScore Bet. Other popular plays include Kenneth Walker III (-190), Cooper Kupp (+260) and Drake Maye (+275).Yardage props could also cause problems for sportsbooks in a high-scoring game, but so too could the unusual props that tend to attract handle for the Super Bowl, such as 2.5 players to have a pass attempt (over +160), will there be a flea-flicker attempted (yes +210), and will there be an octopus (player to score touchdown then 2-point conversion, +1500)."I can go down a whole list of props where they bet 'em and if they hit, we're going to be losers because they've taken a lot of dogs, a lot of long shots on some different types of bets," DraftKings Sportsbook director Johnny Avello told ESPN. "It doesn't matter who wins -- if this game ends up 34 to 31 somebody, that will not be a good result, because that means there's been a lot of touchdown scorers, there's been a lot of passing yards, there's been a lot of receptions. The best scenario at this point is for this game to have limited scoring."ESPN's David Purdum contributed to this report.
