Lady Gaga Super Bowl

Lady Gaga is the halftime performer at the Super Bowl in Houston.

(AP Photo)

Proposition bets that have nothing to do with the actual action on the field have become a big part of a casino's action for the Super Bowl, according to Bovada.lv head oddsmaker Pat Morrow.

Once little more than a novelty, Morrow says prop bets involving the national anthem, coin toss and President Donald Trump's tweets during the game account for a large chunk of the money that gamblers bet with the online gaming site.

The outrageous prop bets were once aimed at getting casual football fans involved in wagering while the hard-core football fans pretty much stuck to things such as the point spread and over-under.

But that has changed, according to Morrow.

"The crazy ones are bridging the gap," Morrow told MLive. "It used to be, as recently as say five years ago, that these kind of novelty or exotic props were about bringing people in that might not otherwise be interested in the game. And to be quite honest, just to get that extra media attention.

"But now ... these exotic props, these novelty props, will end up making up between 30 to 40 percent of all money bet on the Super Bowl. We're at a point now that the Patriots could cover the three-point spread - which would be bad for us - but we can still be OK on the day if we do OK on these national anthem stuff, what color Gatorade, how many times will Trump tweet during the game.

"All that stuff that we took for granted as silliness is now making up a substantial part of our handle."

Those "novelty" prop bets Morrow mentioned include the following:

* The color of the liquid the winning team will pour over its coach's head near the end of the game. Bovada has six colors to choose from with the odds ranging from 3-1 to 12-1.

* How long will Luke Bryan's rendition of the national last, will he forget or omit a word and how will he be dressed.

* Will any players kneel during the anthem? Yes has 3-2 odds and no is 1-2.

* What number will be higher Sunday, Trump's televised interview with Bill O'Reilly (in terms of minutes) or the passing yards by New England quarterback Tom Brady?

* How many times will Brady's wife, supermodel Giselle Bundche, be shown on TV during the broadcast?

* Will the words "Houston, we have a problem" be uttered during the broadast?

* What will be the first song by halftime performer Lady Gaga?

* Who will the Super Bowl MVP mention first? The choices include God, his coach, team or teammates, family, the owner, Trump or none of the above.

* And who will win the coin toss.

"Right out of the gate, it's usually the coin toss is very, very popular," Morrow said. "I hate that prop but for whatever reason people do like it so we will continue to post it. Outside of that, I'd say the national anthem is very popular.

"It's a combination of the fact that there's a lot of information out there. You can see video of Luke Bryan singing the national anthem elsewhere so people might think they have their edge there. But also it's something you can bet on and you'll know the results of your bets prior to the game starting.

"It does have that popularity because if you lose that bet, then you can hop right into the live betting if you want or still have the other prop bets to go after. But it might start the pace for how your Super Bowl is going as far as the national anthem. That one is always very popular."

Morrow said he and his team sit down and consider a number of factors before coming up with the exotic prop bets.

They obviously include current events and with Trump in the news virtually non-stop since his Jan. 20 inauguration, he was an obvious choice to be included.

"Obviously anything Trump says or does gets a lot of media attention," Morrow said. "So we put up how much will he tweet during the game. He's obviously a very prolific tweeter.

"We're hoping that he'll slow it down a little bit because we only put the over-under at 11/2 during the game. So maybe he'll actually sit back and enjoy the game. Our bettors are taking the over on that pretty significantly.

"I think we have something like 500 different wagering options on the website for the Super Bowl now and right up until kickoff we'll be looking to add more and more lines if we're able to do so."

As for the actual game itself, Bovada lists the Patriots as three-point favorites.

Brady is the favorite to be named MVP and the over-under in terms of total points scored is 591/2.

Other football prop bets include the player who will score the first touchdown, how the first TD will be scored, whether the first score will even be a touchdown, will there be overtime, will there be a safety or onside kick, the total number of penalties, and which player will have the most rushing yards or receiving yards.

Morrow didn't want to reveal how much action he expects gamblers to wager with Bovada but he anticipates the five-year-old website having its biggest Super Bowl numbers ever.

"I imagine that will be the case next year as well," he said. "I know there was some concern with the Falcons being the other team coming out of the NFC. Obviously Green Bay and Dallas have much larger national fan bases. From a media standpoint a lot of people thought that would have been better.

"For us, it doesn't really matter. Carolina-Denver last year was our highest Super Bowl ever and I think Atlanta helps in the sense that they serve as a nice foil for the Patriots. The Patriots are obviously a very polarizing team.