Buccaneers Becoming Popular Super Bowl 55 Betting Option

• Chiefs earned the lion’s share of early betting activity after opening as 3.5-point favorites over Bucs in Super Bowl 55
• 51 percent of public money has now been wagered on Tampa Bay, aided by a $2.3 million wager on Tampa Bay to cover the spread
• Sportsbooks expect the public to continue to hammer the Chiefs leading up to Super Bowl Sunday

Super Bowl 55 between the Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers promises to be one of the most exciting NFL championship matchups we’ve seen in quite some time. On one side, you have Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs looking to accomplish the rare feat of winning the Super Bowl in back-to-back seasons. On the other side, Tom Brady is looking to win the Super Bowl for a record seventh time, while representing the NFC in the big game for the first time in his career.

It’s not at all surprising to see that this game has a close spread. As of this writing, most NFL betting sites have the Chiefs listed as three-point favorites. Kansas City just put together one of the most dominant regular seasons in recent memory, while the Buccaneers are coming off a more up-and-down campaign. Despite the Bucs having the potential home-field advantage in their own stadium, Mahomes and the Chiefs are likely to begin the game as odds-on favorites. The most up-to-date Super Bowl 55 betting lines can be found here.

Buccaneers Gaining Steam

However, more money has begun to come in on Tampa Bay’s side. The Chiefs opened as 3.5-point favorites at BetMGM, with Kansas City seeing most of the early action from bettors. In the days after the Chiefs-Bucs matchup was set, a total of three different bets worth six figures apiece came in on the Kansas City side. Per MGM, a whopping 76 percent of wagers and 80 percent of all money bet on the game was siding with the defending champions.

While KC certainly saw a flurry of early interest, more and more bets have started to come in on the Buccaneers in recent days. As of Monday morning, just 62 percent of all bets placed on the game at BetMGM have come in on Kansas City. However, the money has shifted considerably. Slightly more than half (51 percent) of the money bet on the game is now siding with the Buccaneers.

Naturally, one big bet on the Bucs skews things just a bit. One bettor reportedly placed a bet worth $2.3 million on Tampa Bay to cover the 3.5-point spread last week. That’s certainly going to drive the numbers up for the Bucs, but the amount of other activity on Tampa Bay has increased, as well.

While the sportsbook is not too keen on the idea of paying out a $2 million wager on the Buccaneers, more and more money is expected to come in on the Chiefs before kickoff. As a result, there is a very strong chance that sportsbooks all over the country will be rooting for the underdog Bucs come Super Bowl Sunday.

Jason Scott, the VP of trading for BetMGM, told CBS Sports,

“The public loves Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs but sharp bettors have not wagered on either team. The book is currently balanced, but come Sunday, BetMGM will likely need Tom Brady and the Buccaneers to cover. Of course, that could change as more big bets are placed leading up to kickoff.”

Chiefs Have Struggled to Cover Spreads All Season

While the Chiefs have lost just two games all season long, the team wasn’t a particularly profitable bet for wagerers for most of the campaign. The Chiefs did cover the spread in the AFC Championship Game against Buffalo, but that was the first time since November 1 that Kansas City managed to cover. They were 0-8-1 ATS in that stretch before actually winning eight of those nine games.

Tampa Bay is sitting at 11-7-1 against the spread this season. Tampa Bay played three straight playoff games on the road before they will ironically become the first team in NFL history to play the Super Bowl in their home stadium. The Buccaneers managed to pull off upsets in each of their last two games over the New Orleans Saints and Green Bay Packers to reach the Super Bowl for just the second time in franchise history.