Operator bet365 has revealed the popularity of Chiefs' tight-end Travis Kelce and his superstar girlfriend Taylor Swift boosted the number of bets placed on the Super Bowl.
Before the Big Game, the Chiefs were regarded as the underdogs with a slightly lower chance of winning the trophy.
Despite this, bet365 reports that almost 73% of all outright bets on Sunday were placed on the Chiefs compared to 27% of outright bets placed on the 49ers.
The impact of Kelce’s recent popularity on these numbers is evident. Operator bet365’s data shows that more bets were placed on Kelce to score a touchdown than on the San Francisco 49ers to win the game.
Moreover, bet365 jumped on the hype surrounding the famous couple by releasing Taylor Swift-themed bets inspired by her ‘Fearless’ and ‘Red’ albums.
Options available to bettors included ‘Fifteen’ for Patrick Mahomes to win Super Bowl MVP and ‘22’ for Travis Kelce to record 22+ receiving yards in each half.
Commenting on the impact of Kelce’s newfound popularity, a bet365 spokesperson said: “Last year’s epic NFL finale was the worst in recent memory for bet365 and with the two outright favorites lining up against each other in Las Vegas, it threatened to be a similar story this time around. While there were plenty of winning bets for our customers this time around, the low-scoring nature of the game meant it wasn’t the hammering that we’d feared.
“On Sunday, we felt the full force of Travis Kelce’s popularity. We saw more bets placed on Kelce to score a TD than we did on San Francisco to win the game, a trend that continued right up until kickoff.
Almost as popular as Kelce are bet365’s Bet Builders. Almost 56% of all bets before the Big Game were placed on Bet Builders, with customers around the world enjoying the ability to combine the most popular markets from the NFL Championship game into one bet.”
Looking ahead, bet365 has placed Sunday’s losing finalists, the San Francisco 49ers, as the +500 favorites for next year’s game with the Chiefs at +700.
Before the Big Game this year, the AGA estimated Super Bowl wagers could reach $23.1bn.
In other related news, bet365 was not the only sportsbook taking advantage of the media attention around Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift, with DraftKings Sportsbook offering themed bets inspired by the singer.
