The biggest sports betting event of the year takes place this Sunday when the Pittsburgh Steelers and Arizona Cardinals meet on the grid-iron to determine the winner of the 2008-2009 Super Bowl.
The Cardinals are the surprise team after garnering a 9 and 7 straight-up record during the regular season.
The ‘StatFox Super Bowl Scuffle’ aka our prop debate, has become as big of a tradition as parties, commercials, and gambling when it comes to Super Bowl Sunday.
Well, not really, but readers do seem to like it, as it is always one of the most popular pieces of the year.
This year will mark the fourth edition of the Super Bowl Scuffle, in which StatFox representatives Steve Makinen and Doug Upstone debate the wide array of betting options available on Sunday.
Is it really going to be that easy? Anytime the Super Bowl has been an “easy pick”, most betting fans have been burned to the ground. The Patriots in 2008? Done in by their own arrogance and the looming weight of a perfect season. To be honest, the Cardinals are in the Super Bowl for a reason, and to bet against them is a foolish concept at this point, especially without proper research.
The NFL betting season is down to its final three games, meaning handicappers are tuned in and oddsmakers are setting their sharpest lines of the year.
In the AFC Championship, the Pittsburgh Steelers are now 6-point home favorites against the Baltimore Ravens, who have seen the bulk of the action all week. The Ravens have something to prove against the Steelers, who got the best of both matchups this season – albeit by a slim margin in both wins.
The Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers meet for the third time this season with a trip to the Super Bowl at stake. The Ravens will be trying to beat the Steelers for the first time this season while the Steelers will be trying to beat the Ravens for the third time this season.
Both of the teams that made it to the NFC Championship are big surprises. The Philadelphia Eagles had to beat their arch rivals, the New York Giants, on the road in order to get to the championship game. The Arizona Cardinals had to beat the two seed, the Carolina Panthers, on the road to get to the championship game. Out of the two teams, it’s the Cardinals that have provided the biggest surprises to online betting fans this NFL playoff season.
I can’t think of an online sportsbook betting fan that really believed both the Philadelphia Eagles and Arizona Cardinals would win in their NFC Divisional Playoff games this past weekend.
Both the Cardinals and Eagles were online betting underdogs in their games but both came through big time.
In the AFC the AFC North Division sent two teams to the AFC Conference Championship game in the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers.
The Arizona Cardinals travel to Carolina to play in a divisional playoff game where most sports betting fans feel the Cardinals have no chance. Arizona is coming off of a spirited against the spread victory and straight-up victory over the 1 point favored Atlanta Falcons in their last game. Arizona looked very good in that game with running back Edgerrin James suddenly finding his feet.
I’m surprised that the NFL schedulers decided to make this the day game and the Arizona Cardinals vs. Carolina Panthers the night game this Saturday. To me, this is the much more intriguing game, and I believe most sports bettors would agree with me, as the Baltimore Ravens defense looked absolutely spectacular this past Sunday when dominating the Miami Dolphins.
The San Diego Chargers needed overtime to beat the Indianapolis Colts but they did so. In beating the Colts, the Chargers beat a team that had won 9 straight games and was led by the reigning NFL MVP, Peyton Manning. But things don’t get easier for the 9 and 8 straight-up Chargers as they have to take their game to Pittsburgh to play the Steelers.
Sports betting fans have to consider this the most interesting NFL betting game of the NFL Divisional Playoffs as the number one seeded New York Giants take the field against their arch rivals, the Philadelphia Eagles. The Eagles were fantastic on the road this past Sunday when easily covering a 3 point BetUS online betting spread against the Minnesota Vikings.
Both the Baltimore Ravens and Miami Dolphins finished the season with 11 and 5 straight-up records. The Ravens didn’t just finish the season with a terrific straight-up record but they also finished the season with a fantastic sports betting against the spread record of 12 and 4. That’s easily the best record in the NFL, after the Tennessee Titans’ 13 and 3, against the BetUS online betting spread.
The Atlanta Falcons travel to Arizona to take on the Cardinals in the first NFC Playoff Wild-Card game of the weekend. The Cardinals finished out the regular season by losing 4 out of their last 6 games. The only two teams they managed to beat were the hapless St. Louis Rams and the even worse Seattle Seahawks.
Sports betting fans can’t help but feel that the San Diego Chargers backed their way into the playoffs. The Chargers needed the AFC West division leading, at the time, Denver Broncos to lose three games in a row in order to make the playoffs. Well, that’s what happened. It doesn’t mean that the Chargers are all of a sudden worthy of the 8 to 1 BetUS online sportsbook wagering odds that they were at in the beginning of the season to win the Super Bowl.
The Eagles roll into Minnesota to take on a Vikings team that was all out to beat the New York Giants last Sunday even though the Giants rested quarterback Eli Manning in the second half. By contrast, Philadelphia needed the entire world to pretty much crash in order to make the playoffs. Luckily for them it did.
The NFL Playoff fields are set with the New York Giants being a prohibitive online betting favorite to win their second straight Super Bowl.
How big of a favorite are the G-Men? They’re + 250 in the BetUS online sportsbook while the second choice, the Tennessee Titans, are a full + 500. That’s a + 250 difference!
It’s a big difference because an extra one-hundred and fifty for every hundred bucks could seriously make or break any NFL betting fan.
