Everyone knows the Super Bowl is big business, and so it proved again for Super Bowl LIX last weekend.

In the U.S., multiple states smashed their Super Bowl betting records for activity and net win as the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Kansas City Chiefs, while the likes of FanDuel, BetMGM and Caesars reported big revenue returns after a run of “customer-friendly” results earlier in the NFL season.

What about Canadian bettors and operators? Public Canada-specific numbers have been virtually non-existent, so Canadian Gaming Business reached out to various parties to get some insights.

PointsBet Canada hails “fantastic result”

The PointsBet trading team told CGB that Super Bowl LIX was “overall a fantastic result for us” as the underdog Eagles prevailed. The vast majority of money wagered on PointsBet’s sportsbook in Ontario was on the Chiefs and many bettors with SGPs missed their lines.

For example, the ultimately unsuccessful “Saquon Barkley to score a touchdown anytime” market generated more than double the betting volume of any other non-moneyline wager. Patrick Mahomes to win Super Bowl MVP was the most popular singles bet not including core markets, another that didn’t land.

That doesn’t mean customers didn’t win. One bettor hit a 10-leg parlay at +6,500 on a $100 bet and another correctly laid down $4,000 on Eagles QB Jalen Hurts to win the game’s MVP award.

PointsBet’s Ontario sportsbook turnover and unique users were roughly eight to 10 times what they were for a random regular season game.

Ontarians were BetMGM’s 8th-biggest Super Bowl bettors

Senior Trading Manager Christian Cipollini noted that Super Bowl LIX was “the single biggest betting event in the history of BetMGM” as well as one of the best single-game results in company history.

BetMGM told CGB that the eighth-most bets it received on the Super Bowl from any jurisdiction were from Ontario. No. 1? The Eagles’ Pennsylvania. Bettors in Ontario tended towards betting on the under for points total, whereas BetMGM’s U.S. gamblers mostly wagered on the over.

Another Ontario-licensed operator, BetVictor Canada, reported a 42% year-over-year increase in Super Bowl bets and a 72% increase in active users.

Lotteries report Big Game gains

It was also a strong result for provincial lotteries’ sportsbook offerings.

An Alberta Gaming Liquor and Cannabis (AGLC) spokesperson told CGB that its Play Alberta, the province’s only regulated online sportsbook, saw total betting volume and value increase vs. last year’s Super Bowl. That was likely boosted by the fact it launched its very first mobile app early this NFL season.

The most significant action on Play Alberta included a market predicting a “Super Bowl LVII Correct Score Repeat” (Chiefs 38 – Eagles 35) and “either team to score on their first offensive play.”

British Columbia Lottery Corporation’s (BCLC) PlayNow also set a new benchmark with what was described to CGB as a slight increase on last year in both bets and handle.

In Ontario, per Dave Briggs in the Gaming News Canada newsletter,  52% of Ontario Lottery and Gaming’s PROLINE bettors backed the losing Chiefs, but 72% correctly took the “over” prop of 48.5 points.

One bettor made a big profit by wagering that a player would record 150 receiving yards, netting a $1,980 payout from a $180 stake. In a much more lucrative win, a lucky gambler won $38,871 by getting all 14 selections correct on a PROLINE Super Bowl pool.

Canadians like a novelty bet

Canadians also seem to enjoy a novelty wager or two.

OLG reported that 41% of PROLINE bettors who bet on the coin toss correctly picked tails. Remarkably, PointsBet told us they recorded the exact same number of wagers on heads and tails. What are the odds of that?

Another popular punt was which colour of Gatorade would be poured on the winning head coach. Play Alberta users went most frequently for orange, while OLG’s PROLINE saw the highest percentage of bettors (25%) correctly pick yellow/lime green.

AGLC bettors thought Jon Batiste’s national anthem would go over on length, while nearly four in five (79%) of OLG’s users correctly said it would come in at under 122 seconds.

Finally, new this year on BCLC’s PlayNow was a market on whether a player or coach would be seen crying on the broadcast during the national anthem. And, speaking of music, FanDuel Canada told CGB its top-three novelty markets by betting volume in the lead-up to the game all related to who would appear at the half-time show and what they might sing.