A Super Bowl XLIV Betting Extravaganza

It’s official — the New Orleans Saints and Indianapolis Colts will battle for Super Bowl XLIV at the Sun Life Stadium in Miami on Sunday, February 7th.

Know what else is official? The start of Super Bowl betting options! For the next 13 days, prepared to be inundated a myriad of NFL betting, Super Bowl betting and a host of other football props. We’ll kick things off today with a list of our early favourites — please note that all lines come courtesy Sports Interaction’s online sportsbook.

The Game: The opening lines as of Monday have the Colts as -5.5 favourites with an Over/Under listed at 56 points. Some might be a tad surprised at the Colts being listed as a near-converted-touchdown favourite, but don’t be — the team has a ton of postseason experience and all the big figures from their Super Bowl XLI win are still there: Peyton Manning, Joseph Addai, Reggie Wayne, Robert Mathis, Dwight Freeney, Gary Brackett…You get the picture.

The Saints, meanwhile, don’t have a ton of Super Bowl experience. Veteran Safety Darren Sharper has played in one, TE Jeremy Shockey stood on the sidelines for one (injured during the Giants’ upset win over the Patriots)…and that’s about it.

Race to 10 points: Always an interesting wager, especially with two quick-scoring, high-powered offenses like the Saints and Colts. Right now it’s New Orleans who are the underdogs in this category, listed as 33/25 as opposed to the Colts (3/5).  A note of interest about New Orleans’ ability to come flying out of the gate: The Saints can score early (28 points in their last two first quarters combined) but also tend to give up a lot of early scores as well (21 combined to the Cardinals and Vikings). And, for those of you who recall Super Bowl XLI, you know that the Colts got off to a slow start, first allowing Devin Hester to score on a 92-yard kickoff return to set things off, then allowing a Rex Grossman-to-Muhsin Muhammad TD score to close out the first quarter down 14-7.

First-Half Over/Under: Simple math here really — the game’s total is listed at 56, so the first half O/U is 28 points even. Again, if recent trends out of New Orleans tell us anything, it’s that the Saints like to score (also, trade scores) and do it early. The Saints and Cards combined to score 49 points in the first half of their divisional playoff round game; the Saints and Vikings combined for 28 in the first half of the NFC Championship.

The Colts, meanwhile, have shown some statistical similarities pertaining to half-by-half scores:

vs. Baltimore — 20 points combined in the first half, three in the second
vs. New York Jets — 30 points combined in the first half, 17 in the second

Get all your NFL football betting odds at Sports Interaction’s online sportsbook today!