LAS VEGAS -- The bettors have spoken and the Denver Broncos are a short favorite over the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLVIII.
Oddsmakers here in the desert and at sports books in the offshore world were all over the map when posting their opening lines shortly after Seattle's Malcolm Smith intercepted San Francisco QB Colin Kaepernick (off a great tip-drill play from Richard Sherman) to preserve the Seahawks' 23-17 win over the 49ers and set up the Super Bowl matchup of No. 1 seeds.
People checking the Super Bowl line on Sunday night or Monday morning will see the Denver Broncos around minus-1 or minus-1.5, but it wasn't as cut-and-dried as that.
Last week, several books here in Vegas had advance lines on the potential Super Bowl XLVIII matchups and in this one, the Seahawks were bet up to a 3-point favorite over the Broncos at the William Hill books. At other casinos, the line at Seahawks minus-2.5, including those with NFC versus AFC lines such as the Las Vegas Hotel and South Point.
However, after the Broncos' dominating 26-16 win over the New England Patriots earlier Sunday -- and most people didn't think it was as close as the final score indicates -- there was a lot of discussion that the Broncos could be favored over either NFC team.
But even after several offshore books went with pick 'em (and CRIS opted for Broncos minus-1), the LVH posted Seahawks minus-2 at 9:50 p.m. ET as Seattle was running out the clock and several other Vegas books followed suit with Seattle minus-1.5 (MGM and South Point), Seattle minus-1 (the William Hill chain and the mid-Strip Wynn and Treasure Island) and pick 'em (Caesars, South Point, Cantor Gaming, Station Casinos and Boyd Gaming).
It was clear from the start that all the early money was coming in on Denver. By 10:16 p.m. ET, all the offshores had moved the Broncos to favoritism and 11 minutes later the LVH was the last Vegas holdout. By then, Station Casinos had already gone as high as Broncos minus-3 before getting bet back down.
An hour later, the consensus in Vegas was Broncos minus-1.5 with a low of 1 at the LVH, MGM, Caesars and Aliante in far North Las Vegas, and a high of 2.5 at Stations and Boyd Gaming.