The coin toss has been a Super Bowl staple at sportsbooks for decades and is one of the most heavily bet markets.

For a recent Super Bowl, one Las Vegas oddsmaker reported taking more bets on the toss than on any other prop wager. The amount of money bet on the coin toss has increased as more states legalize betting, though not every state with legal sportsbooks allows the prop.

Why Sportsbooks Take Super Bowl Coin Toss Bets

Typically, sports betting commercial content promotes a wager on the coin toss as a way for some quick Super Bowl “action.” It’s generally the Super Bowl bet that will give you the fastest result (i.e., settle), which could pose some problem gambling risks if it encourages loss chasing over the course of the game.

Sportsbooks typically charge -105 on each side of the coin toss (heads or tails). The last digit in the odds represents the oddsmaker’s fee (known as the vigorish). Gamblers are mathematically guaranteed to lose money over time betting with those odds.

Some sportsbooks may give customers even (+100) odds as a Super Bowl marketing gimmick, so if you bet a consistent sum on the toss, you’d theoretically break even over time. The betting apps, which are habit-forming, might forgo charging a vig on the coin toss to entice you to sign up for an account.

Beyond a simple heads-or-tails wager, some betting sites allow bets on:

• Whether the player who calls heads or tails calls it correctly
• Whether the team that wins the coin toss will also win the game
• Whether the team that wins the toss will receive the opening kickoff or defer

Is Betting on the Coin Toss Problematic?

Is betting on the Super Bowl coin toss a red flag in a person’s gambling behavior? There is arguably little entertainment value in watching the Super Bowl coin toss relative to the game itself.

However, it’s possible to bet the coin toss harmlessly. Like NFL preseason betting, the wager in a vacuum isn’t a problem.

A compulsion to bet on everything (e.g., the coin toss, halftime show, etc.) is a sign of potential gambling addiction. However, you don’t have a problem solely because you bet on the coin toss, and your friend or family member doesn’t have a problem solely because they bet on it.

As one sports bettor told me: 

“It’s the clearest example of a -EV bet that you’ll ever find. Does that mean it’s a sign of gambling addiction if you bet it? Of course not. The question is: how much entertainment value does it offer you? If you get some joy out of it and don’t bet a lot, there’s no problem with it. I do think it’s a dumb bet to make, if I’m being honest.”

You should be concerned about your gambling or another person’s gambling if a belief in a gambling-related myth is present. This might be the fallacy that past Super Bowl coin tosses have significance for the Super Bowl LX coin toss. In other words, it wouldn’t matter if heads occurred at the last X number of Super Bowls. It’s still 50-50 for heads or tails every year.

If you are concerned about your gambling or someone else’s gambling, call 1-800-GAMBLER.