Once a year the two best teams from the NFL’s American and National league face off for glory, rings, pay extensions and of course bragging rights for next year. Yep, it’s that time again, time for another American Super Bowl.
This year’s Super Bowl 52 will be played at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The event will be held on February 4th and this years featured entertainment will be a halftime show performance from Justin Timberlake. This will be only the 6th time in history that the NFL’s biggest game will be held in a cold weather city. The broadcast will be aired on NBC and coverage for the game will start at 6:30pm. Recording artist Pink will perform the “U.S. National Anthem” and Leslie Odom Jr. will sing “America the Beautiful”.
Right now, the NFL is going into the Conference round of the playoffs with four teams fighting it out this weekend to advance to Super Bowl 52. The intriguing element looming this year is that 3 out of the 4 teams currently in the playoffs have never won a Super Bowl in its 52 years of existence. Both the Eagles and Vikings who are currently in the playoffs and going up against each other this weekend have both won an NFC championship prior to the NFL-AFL merger that soon after created the Super Bowl.
The other two teams playing the AFC conference championship this weekend are the Jacksonville Jaguars and the New England Patriots. The Jaguars are one of the leagues newest expansion teams only being in the league since 1995. The Patriots are the team with the most Super Bowl appearances, with 9 already, 10 if they make it this year. The Patriots have been heavy favorites ever since Tom Brady’s first appearance in Super Bowl 36 when they defeated the St. Louis Rams by a score of 20-17.
This Super Bowl promises to bring excitement in the fact that at least one team if not two will be playing for their first ever franchise Super Bowl. So far only 18 out of 32 franchises’ have ever won a Super Bowl. The longest withstanding franchise without a championship is currently the Atlanta Falcons who were introduced into the league in 1966 and are still yet to win a Super Bowl. The Vikings and Eagles aren’t much further behind the Falcons though, neither team has won a championship in their existence, and they are only a few years behind the falcons 1966 conception.
One of the weirdest things about this playoff round is the names of quarterbacks that many people are not familiar with. Tom Brady, yea everybody knows him, but have you ever heard of Nick Foles, Case Keenum, or Blake Bortles? Probably not and it comes as no surprise since most of their teams weren’t even playoff contenders in recent years. If the Patriots loose this weekend, the betting odds are in for dramatic shifts. If the Patriots win this weekend it is safe to say that most online sportsbooks will favor the Patriots for another win in their Super Bowl betting odds being that they are the current champions following last year’s huge comeback against the Atlanta Falcons.
While Las Vegas is about the only place to get a full sportsbook gambling experience domestically, legal Super Bowl betting is available online in most states through licensed and regulated offshore bookmakers. On a global scale, the Super Bowl is one of the most wagered on events that takes place annually. Even for this weekend’s playoff rounds, bets are expected to come in from across the world.
Many states are now pushing for legal sports betting, as they want a piece of the revenue that fuels a thriving offshore market. Vegas is getting an NFL team in the next two years and many states want to push legislation now, so sports betting can become legal in their state as soon as possible. States like New Jersey where sports betting is not legal views the states like Nevada as receiving special treatment by the Federal Government since land based sports betting is permitted for them but federally illegal in New Jersey. Hopefully we will see a resolution from the Supreme Court on this issue in the coming months but for this years’ Super Bowl not much will change except for the teams and the betting lines.
This Sunday the playoffs will resume as the Philadelphia Eagles face the Minnesota Vikings (NFC) and the New England Patriots face the Jacksonville Jaguars (AFC) on the road to Super Bowl 52. These conference games will decide who will get invited to the big game and ultimately what franchise will have the shot at winning their first ever Super Bowl. Vegas is going to highly favor the Patriots under most circumstances but like most sports bettors and analysis out there know, anything can happen on Sunday.