Christina Aguilera famously flubbed the Super Bowl XLV National Anthem, but what did it mean to prop bettors?
* The average over/under time posted for the Anthem was 1:54. So most bet either OVER or UNDER that time.
* Internet posters at home timing the performance almost all report being very close to a time of 1:54.
* HEAVY action came in on the OVER, meaning the sportsbooks do much better financially if the time is graded UNDER.
* As you might guess, a majority of sportsbooks are grading the event UNDER – with some calling it a TIE (all money returned), and a some even grading OVER. And as you might also guess, no one who lost is happy!
* In Nevada, you can only bet on an event a) decided on the field; b) with results able to be determined by a standard boxscore of the game. Props like the length of the National Anthem are NOT able to be bet in Nevada, only with online sportsbooks. Nevada wants to avoid the uncertainty of grading events not decided in the boxscore – an uncertainty clearly on display in this case.
* A majority of observers seem to believe that Aguilera’s flub DECREASED the time of the Anthem – so not only are they upset at her messing up a sacred song, but they lost money because of her mistake!
* The over/under for how long Aguilera would hold the final note of the song (“brave”) was set at 6 seconds. The actual time was clocked at 11 seconds. If she had held the note anywhere near the expected time, the over/under for the entire song would have clearly been UNDER.
What do you think about the way this is being handled by the online sportsbooks?