Super Bowl rakes in the bucks

Preliminary figures from the Nevada Gaming Control Board show Nevada’s 196 sportsbooks took $138.5 million in wagers on the much-anticipated, annual NFL football championship, The Super Bowl, a 7.9 percent increase over 2016.

Aside from wagering on the big result, it’s estimated that bookmakers around the world offer an additional 600 to 700 proposition bets on the championship.

But not all Nevada sportsbooks were successful, William Hill reportedly suffered a six-figure loss, mostly on in-play betting when the New England Patriots made an epic comeback as the game went into overtime for the first time in its history.

“In-play was the killer. That was, by far, the worst thing that ever happened,” William Hill sports book director Nick Bogdanovich said. “Everybody was taking the big plus price on New England when they were down 28-3.”

And spare a thought for the punter who laid a $1 million bet that underdogs, the Atlantic Falcons, would take the trophy home, so close – yet so far.