NFL bettor loses $1.3 million on three Super Bowl LVIII bets

After the largest bets placed on Super Bowl LVIII were on the San Francisco 49ers, it’s no surprise that some bettors lost big on Sunday night as the Chiefs came out victorious in overtime. According to sports betting reporter Ben Fawkes, a single NFL bettor in Michigan placed $1.3 million worth of bets on three wagers and lost it all.

Per Fawkes, the Michigander betting with Ceasers Sportsbook placed bets on the 49ers to win, quarterback Brock Purdy to win the Super Bowl LVIII MVP and, shockingly, a $100,000 bet on the pre-game coin toss to land on tails. Since the Chiefs won, Patrick Mahomes won MVP and the coin toss landed on heads, they lost all $1.3 million.

The state of Nevada, which is where Super Bowl LVIII took place, took in a record amount of profit on bets on Sunday. According to the Nevada Gaming Commission Board, the state brought in $185.6M on wagers, with sportsbooks coming out ahead by 3.7%, or approximately $6.8M. In the history of Super Bowl gambling in Nevada, the sportsbooks have only lost money twice.

While some lost big, other NFL bettors took big victory laps on Sunday. One lucky fan bet $1,000 on San Francisco’s rookie cornerback Ji’Ayir Brown snagging the first INT of the game. He did just that, earning the fan $40,000.

Super Bowl LVIII breaks NFL viewership records

A record number of eyeballs tuned in to see the Kansas City Chiefs’ 25-22 victory over San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LVIII at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas Sunday night.

CBS announced Tuesday that their broadcast was the most-watched Super Bowl of all-time and most-watched telecast in history, attracting 123.4 million average viewers across platforms, including the CBS Television Network, Paramount+, Nickelodeon, Univision, and CBS Sports, Univision and NFL digital properties, including NFL+.

“More than 200 million viewers (202.4) watched all or part of Super Bowl LVIII across networks, the highest unduplicated total audience in history and up +10% vs. last year’s Super Bowl (184 million),” the press release stated.

It surpasses last year’s game in terms of average viewership, which had 115.1 million viewers, as the most-watched ever. The NFL’s biggest games now make up nine of the 10 most-watched broadcast programs in history, the Apollo 11 moon landing serving as the outlier. That event tops the list at 150 million viewers.

On3’s Nick Geddes contributed to this report.