YOU MAY BE A BIG SUPER-BOWL WINNER AND DON'T KNOW IT. Some bettors in Las Vegas may have a winning sportsbook ticket from the Super Bowl and not know about it because of one play early in the second quarter.
Bettors could be heading to the window believing they have money coming back from a wager for a would-be extra point attempt, only to learn the ticket they are holding is a loser. Los Angeles Rams holder Johnny Hekker botched placing the ball down for a would-be extra point attempt by placekicker Matt Gay, only to jump up and attempt to throw the ball toward the end zone. The incomplete pass was ruled a failed two-point conversion by the game’s official scorekeeper, meaning bettors who had “Yes” on whether there would be a two-point conversion attempt won their wager. That Super-Bowl prop opened at even money on the “Yes” at the Westgate Las Vegas Super-Book. Other books had a prop bet on whether Gay would miss an extra point, which many would assume happened during the play. But he was 2-for-2 on extra point kicks, according to the box score. Prop bets accounted for 70% of the tickets written at the Westgate on the Super-Bowl. It takes a team of seven sportsbook officials about three hours after the game to input the results into the system. They aren’t taking stats from the television broadcast or online box score. The Westgate Sportsbook waits for the official scorer — and the number included in the official box score. “There is a lot of conversation and a lot of focus,” the Westgate said. “We are double- and triple-checking everything (in data entry) for accuracy.” In the case of Hekker’s mishap, it didn’t help that the game’s announcers, NBC’s Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth, kept saying it was a missed extra point. Additionally, Hekker’s heave was not credited as a pass in the box score because it happened on a conversion attempt, and no stats are awarded on conversion attempts. The botched hold had other damaging effects for Ram Supporters. The botched hold proved costly, in particular, for a bettor at Bellagio who had wagered $1 million on the Rams to score more than 13.5 points in the first half. The botched hold also made many Bengals backers for the game a winner. The Rams closed as a 4-point favorite, meaning that had Gay been able to make his kick, Los Angeles would have won by four points to result in a push.
