TUALATIN, Ore. (KOIN) — Did you bet on the Super Bowl? If so, you’re among millions who did — and in Oregon, the Oregon Lottery’s Scoreboard app took in tens of thousands of bets.
But many of those bets weren’t on the outcome of the game. They were proposition bets (or prop bets, for short), for instance, betting on the coin toss.
The Scoreboard app, the state’s first legal online sports betting option, offers a lot more choices than just betting on who wins and by how much. More than 600 prop bets — from whether a ball would hit the goal post or crossbar to the color of the drink dumped on the winning coach — were available.
This year, Oregon’s Scoreboard Super Bowl bets were way up from a year ago, and the pandemic may be a factor.
“People’s entertainment options have shrunk with the pandemic so they’ve got budget entertainment money,” said Oregon Lottery Sportsbook Manager Tony Gallenbeck. “They can’t go to the movies, to a restaurant, so they can play it on a lottery product like Scoreboard.”
The prop bets are also a way to keep viewers interested even if the outcome of the game is a done deal long before the clock runs out. And each year the number of prop bets grows, so if you have an idea, send it to the state Lottery Office.
Lottery money goes to several state programs, with the largest chunk going to Oregon schools.
So, what were the most popular prop bets? The color of the drink poured on the winning coach and the coin toss.