The setting
Las Vegas is internet hosting its first Tremendous Bowl in the present day. Town has a fraught historical past with skilled sports activities due to its affiliation with playing, and leagues have saved groups away to keep up their sports activities’ look of integrity. That modified in 2018, when the Supreme Court docket cleared the best way for legalized sports activities betting. Vegas officers, keen to spice up tourism, lured skilled baseball and soccer groups to town. Internet hosting the Tremendous Bowl is a crowning achievement.
Not everyone seems to be comfortable concerning the transformation, although. Officers offered $750 million in subsidies to assist construct Allegiant Stadium, the place the Tremendous Bowl will happen, whilst town’s public faculties have languished. “It simply represents that we don’t care,” LaTasha Olsen, who works at a neighborhood elementary college, instructed my colleagues Ken Belson and Jenny Vrentas.
The halftime present
Usher, the headline act at halftime, is a showman made for the Tremendous Bowl. He sings, he dances, he boasts a three-decade-long catalog that makes for recognizable medley fodder. However tonight’s efficiency is greater than a nostalgia journey. Usher has skilled a current renaissance, prompted by a Las Vegas residency. (Final yr, movies of him serenading celebrities, together with Keke Palmer and Issa Rae, unfold extensively on social media.)
Usher has framed his efficiency as a celebration of his profession. It’s additionally a second within the highlight for his style: “This evening was particularly curated in my thoughts to have R&B take the principle stage,” he instructed Vogue.
The bets
Business consultants anticipate this yr’s Tremendous Bowl to be the biggest sports activities betting day in American historical past, with greater than 67 million folks wagering on the occasion. Essentially the most conventional sort of guess is predicting the victor, with the underdog — on this case, the Chiefs — noticed just a few factors. However a rising development lately has been making so-called prop bets, which let you gamble on absolutely anything, together with:
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Whether or not the sport’s shortest landing play might be beneath 1.5 yards.
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Whether or not it would take Reba McEntire beneath 90.5 seconds to sing the nationwide anthem.
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Any variety of Swift-related uncertainties: Will her lipstick be purple? How lengthy will it’s earlier than she seems onscreen? And which of her songs will the announcers discuss with first? The favourite is “Unhealthy Blood.”
The Athletic put collectively its personal prop bets, which you’ll play together with right here with out risking your cash.
