Vegas opened the Panthers as 3.5-point or 4.5-point favorites—depending on where you looked Sunday night—in Super Bowl 50 and the money has been rolling in on Cam Newton and Carolina ever since.
Bookmakers have been inundated with gamblers backing the NFC champs, moving the line higher and higher (it's currently 6) in order to entice bettors to balance their ledgers with a wager on the Broncos. But the public support is so crazy for Carolina right now that, according to ESPN, one gambler put over $600,000 on the Panthers to win.
As of Wednesday evening, 87 percent of the spread bets and 94 percent of the total money wagered at William Hill US were on Carolina. One bettor wagered $623,142.25 at William Hill US on the Panthers to win straight up at -190 odds. The bet would win $327,969.60 if Carolina prevails.
Taking the Panthers on the moneyline and stomaching that kind of juice is more than most gamblers would be bale to handle, but when you have $600K to randomly throw on a football game, who's counting? And no word yet on who noted gambler Floyd Mayweather—when's the last time he tweeted out a losing ticket, by the way?—will be supporting for the big game, but we expect the retired boxer to throw way more than $632,142.25 on the Super Bowl.
And finally, we'll leave you with the absurd amount of money that will supposedly be wagered on the Super Bowl and shake our head at the massive amount of taxes states and the federal government will not reap because they continue to allow it to thrive underground rather than doing the sensible thing and legalizing it.
According to an estimate released Wednesday by the American Gaming Association, Americans will bet $4.2 billion on Super Bowl 50 -- an 8 percent increase over last year. Nearly 97 percent of those bets will be wagered illegally.
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