Super Bowl Prop Bets: The National Anthem

Added on Jan 29, 2011 by Jack Thurman in

Super Bowl

The Super Bowl is now just over a week away and we’re going to begin our in-depth breakdown of every possible betting angle imaginable. We’ll start with the prop bets and work our way through to our official side and total play on the game. Every online sportsbook has their own selection of prop bets, so we’ll make reference to which book we found a specific prop bet at. Some props can be found at a variety of books in which case you need to shop them around just like you would any other bet. Later today we’ll discuss some theoretical things behind handicapping prop bets but I’m in a musical mood this morning so we’ll start with a variety of props dealing with the pre-game National Anthem which will be performed this year by the lovely Christina Aguilera. All of the prop bets in this post are from Sports Interaction, but you can find most of these–particularly the ‘length of the song’ props at other sportsbooks.

First, some background on the Super Bowl National Anthem. When I discussed this prop bet last year some people speculated that the ‘over’ or ‘under’ was the right play based on the fear/hope that Carrie Underwood would get nervous and either rush through the song or stammer and forget the words. That’s highly unlikely for a number of reasons–first of all, we’re not talking amateur hour performers here. Whether or not you like the music of Christina Aguilera, Carrie Underwood, et. al. I think we can all agree that they are experienced and successful performers. There may be a bigger audience watching at home, but from a performance perspective even the big crowd on hand at the game is unlikely to faze them.

On a more practical level, a completely disastrous performance is unlikely because since 1993 the NFL has required the National Anthem singer to provide a pre-recorded ‘backing track’ of their performance. Some singers have ‘lip synced’ their live version (Jennifer Hudson in 2009, for example) but most just use it for accompaniment. The reason the NFL now requires the recorded clip is kind of funny–in 1993, Garth Brooks was scheduled to sign the Anthem for the Super Bowl but walked out of the stadium 45 minutes before kickoff due to a dispute with NBC. Apparently the network was supposed to air the video for Garth’s latest song during the pregame but refused to do so due to some content they deemed ‘objectionable’. Eventually, the two sides patched things up and Garth did his job but the NFL had taken the precaution of dragging Jon Bon Jovi out of the stands to ad-lib the anthem just in case.

Since Christina Aguilera is doing the National Anthem this year, we have some ‘historical precedent’ to work with. She did the anthem at Game 7 of the 2010 NBA Finals–we’ve got the video below–and it at least gives us an idea of what to expect.

TIME OF THE ANTHEM:

Sports Interaction has this priced at over/under 1:53. I took a stopwatch to the performance in the video below and clocked it at 1:54 seconds. For that reason I’m looking to the ‘Over’ in this prop. While that’s not much of an overlay if anything she’ll ‘milk’ the performance even more for the Super Bowl. You may find a different ‘total’ at other sportsbooks so shop it around.

Bet National Anthem Over 1:53 -125

MICROPHONE OR HEADSET:

Another Sports Interaction prop offers odds on whether Aguilera will use a handheld microphone or a headset. Based on a review of previous Super Bowl anthems, a headset would be very unlikely but this bet is definitely priced to reflect that.

Bet ‘Microphone’ -3333

WHAT WILL CHRISTINA AGUILERA WEAR?

While I’d enjoy it if she wore ‘booty shorts’ (+10000) or a ‘star spangled bikini’ (+50000) that’s not going to happen. She’ll probably wear something similar to what she had on in the video below, which again doesn’t offer much value. If you want to take a shot on an underdog, you can bet she’ll wear pants at +450.

Bet ‘dress or skirt’ -2000

Sports Interaction is also offering prop bets on whether she’ll wear her hair up or down, or whether it’ll be curled or straight. Unless you have a connection with her stylist, I don’t see much reason to bet those.