Betting on Seahawks’ Kenneth Walker III generates plenty of action ahead of Super Bowl

Betting on Seahawks’ Kenneth Walker III generates plenty of action ahead of Super Bowl
Betting on Seahawks’ Kenneth Walker III generates plenty of action ahead of Super Bowl

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Seattle running back Kenneth Walker III is at the center of betting action as the Seahawks prepare to face the New England Patriots in Sunday’s Super Bowl.

BetMGM Sportsbook has taken a lot of money on Walker to top 20 1/2 yards receiving and under 72 1/2 yards rushing.

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Walker surpassed that receiving yardage total in both playoff games and in four of his last five games, including the regular season. He reached the land total in three of them.

The rushing yardage prop bet started at 78 1/2 yards.

“That’s the highest bet for any fixture across the board,” said John Ewing, public relations media information manager for BetMGM. “Usually players tend to want to bet on positive outcomes, but this is a situation where the rushing yardage support has dropped quite a bit.”

Hit the salary ground

Walker is also a popular bet at DraftKings Sportsbook. He is +350 to score the first touchdown of the game and -195 to reach the end zone at any time.

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Multiplayer touchdown bets are proving popular with DraftKings bettors.

“That’s a fixture that’s getting a lot of action,” said Johnny Avello, director of racing and sports betting operations at DraftKings. “And it usually requires a lot of action throughout the year. It doesn’t surprise me that it’s probably the biggest support for the Super Bowl.”

Seahawks wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba is a +550 favorite to score the first TD and a -110 favorite to score a touchdown at any point. Teammate Cooper Kupp has 14-1 odds to score the first touchdown.

There is no shortage of options

Super Bowl bettors have plenty of options. They can bet on everything from whether there will be a safety to whether the game will go to overtime and who will be named MVP.

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A bookmaker will typically offer over 1,000 prop bets, although many are variations of the same base bet. Each quarterback, for example, will have different probabilities on whether he could pass for at least 200, 250, or 300 yards.

“Caesars helped ignite the Super Bowl prop betting craze in the 1980s,” said Craig Mucklow, vice president of operations for Caesars Sportsbook. “This is our most comprehensive and diverse accessory menu to date.”

Avello said publishing so many different accessories is not as challenging as it seems.

“It’s because we do it every Sunday in every game,” Avello said. “We have our model and we just plug in the equipment that’s new to the players and everything that has to do with that particular game. We’ve had a lot of these fixtures since Sunday night two Sundays ago.”

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Different rules for different states

Some states will accept a sportsbook’s entire list of prop bets, but others have laws that restrict what you can bet on.

Not all states allow bets on whether the coin toss will come up heads or tails. Only a few allow betting on the color of Gatorade that will be sprayed on the winning bus.

“BetMGM focuses on the fixtures that happen on the field, so that eliminates any ambiguity,” Ewing said. “That’s why most bettors are used to most props.”

Overseas sports betting and prediction markets do not follow the same rules and can offer many subjective props, such as the length of the national anthem. This is not allowed in the United States for numerous reasons. The moment at which the song begins and ends can be interpreted differently, and there is also a chance that bettors have inside information about the interpretation.

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Bettors backing the Seahawks

For those making traditional bets on the outcome of the game, the Seahawks are a consensus 4 1/2-point favorite.

“Right now, we have most of the action in the Seahawks spread, which is the biggest betting market,” Ewing said. “The Seahawks in the future market are the only problem we have left, so we’re going to root for the Patriots to maybe pull off an upset or at least keep it close.”

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