Across the United States, from office pools to phone apps, Super Bowl LX betting is about to reach a new peak as fans flock to the Seahawks vs Patriots showdown in Santa Clara. Americans are expected to wager a record 1.76 billion dollars in legal bets on this one game, turning a sports night into one of the country’s biggest cash events.
How much money is expected to be bet legally on Super Bowl LX? Americans are projected to wager about 1.76 billion dollars with legal U.S. sportsbooks, according to a new estimate released Friday by the American Gaming Association.
That figure would mark an increase of nearly 27 percent over last year’s Super Bowl LIX, when legal bets were estimated at 1.39 billion dollars. The jump reflects how quickly state regulated sports betting has grown since the Supreme Court cleared the way in 2018, with commercial and tribal sportsbooks now live in 39 states and the District of Columbia.
Super Bowl LX will kick off on February 8 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, with the Seattle Seahawks facing the New England Patriots in a rematch of their classic 2015 meeting. For many homes, the game has become a kind of unofficial holiday, with food, music and a phone in hand to check live odds.
In less than a decade, a once niche legal market has turned the Super Bowl into a real time stress test of how much Americans are willing to stake on a single night of football.
To understand how fast that has happened, it helps to look at the recent climb in legal Super Bowl betting:
| Super Bowl | Year | Legal U.S. bets (estimate) |
|---|---|---|
| LIX | 2025 | 1.39 billion dollars |
| LX | 2026 | 1.76 billion dollars (projected) |
Before 2024, the main national estimates tried to count every kind of Super Bowl wager, from offshore sites to casual office squares, and topped 23 billion dollars for Super Bowl LVIII. The newer numbers are narrower but firmer, built from state regulator data and focused only on legal sportsbooks.
From coin flip bets to same game parlays
For many fans, their first Super Bowl bet is still the simplest one of the night: heads or tails on the opening coin toss. That tiny wager captures what the event has become, a mix of ritual, superstition and instant action.
Sportsbooks now post long menus of so called prop bets, short for proposition bets. These are wagers on specific events inside the game, like who scores first or how many passing yards a quarterback will record, rather than just who wins or loses.
Two of the most popular types of Super Bowl bets today are:
- Quick bets on simple moments, such as the coin toss, the first drive result or which team scores first.
- Longer shot props on things like player stats, defensive touchdowns or even the color of the drink dumped on the winning coach.
Those novelty bets sit alongside more complicated same game parlays, in which a customer strings several picks from the same matchup into one ticket. A fan might back the Seahawks to win, the total score to go over a certain number, and a specific receiver to score a touchdown, all in one wager.
Parlays are appealing because they promise big payouts from small stakes, but the math tilts hard toward the house. State data and academic studies show that operators keep a much higher share of money bet on parlays than on single game bets, often four or five times the profit margin. That helps explain the constant push notifications and boosted odds tied to these combo wagers.
Prediction markets blur the line between betting and investing
While regulated sportsbooks sit at the center of the Super Bowl betting boom, a newer set of players is quickly gaining attention: online prediction markets.
These platforms let users buy and sell contracts on real world events, including sports outcomes, in a format that looks and feels a lot like trading stocks. Instead of placing a straight bet on the Seahawks to win, a user might buy shares in “Seattle wins Super Bowl LX” at a certain price and then sell before or after the game.
In the run up to this year’s game, major prediction markets have already drawn very large sums tied to the Patriots Seahawks matchup, with individual sites reporting well over 100 million dollars in Super Bowl related trading. That is on top of the 1.76 billion dollars forecast for traditional legal sportsbooks.
Industry leaders are divided on what this means. Supporters say prediction markets offer a different way to express views on sports, politics and other events, and are sometimes accessible in states that do not allow normal sports betting. Critics argue that, for a casual user, the difference is mostly on paper.
A new study from the American Gaming Association warns that some of these platforms market sports wagers as “investments,” not entertainment, and often lack the responsible gambling tools that licensed books must provide. The concern is that people who would never open a stock trading account might be drawn into high risk, always on sports betting that feels more serious and less playful than a friendly prop bet.
Problem gambling rises in the Super Bowl spotlight
Behind the record Super Bowl handle is a quieter story that worries public health experts and recovery groups.
The National Council on Problem Gambling estimates that about 2.5 million U.S. adults suffer from severe gambling problems, while another 5 to 8 million face milder but still harmful issues linked to betting. That means millions of people could be especially vulnerable during a night like the Super Bowl, when betting is not just accepted but celebrated almost everywhere you look.
A recent national survey by the same council, completed in early 2024, found that around 8 percent of American adults reported at least one sign of problematic gambling behavior “many times” in the past year. The risk was highest among people who gamble often, play many different games and see gambling as a way to make money instead of a form of paid entertainment.
Help lines are seeing the strain. The National Problem Gambling Helpline reports that calls have jumped sharply over the last few years as mobile sports betting spread and advertising exploded. Many of those callers are young men who started with small sports bets on their phones and found themselves unable to stop chasing losses.
If you feel that your own betting is no longer fun or under control, a national problem gambling helpline at 1 800 522 4700 offers free, confidential support around the clock. One phone call or chat can connect you to counselors and local resources in every state.
