Westgate offers new twist with Super Bowl prop contest

The Westgate is offering a different way to play prop bets on Super Bowl Sunday.

The inaugural Big Game Prop Contest lets bettors compete on a set list of 30 props for Sunday’s Super Bowl LIV between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers in Miami Gardens, Florida.

The entry fee is $100, and bettors may enter up to three times.

“We think the interest is out there,” Westgate sportsbook vice president Jay Kornegay said. “Everybody has their own specialty, their own sport that they’d consider joining a contest for.”

Each prop is worth one point. The bettor who accumulates the most points over the 30 props wins 50 percent of the prize pool. Second place receives 30 percent, and third place gets 20 percent. A $5 administrative fee is taken from each entry.

The combined total score for the game will be the tiebreaker. The deadline to enter is 2 p.m. Sunday, about 90 minutes before kickoff.

Kornegay said more than 20 people already had signed up, and he expected at least 100 to 150 to enter.

“We’re hoping most will sign up on Saturday to alleviate congestion on Sunday,” he said.

The props used for the contest are, not surprisingly, of the 50-50 variety, with the first being: Who will win the game? (The Chiefs are a slight betting favorite at -115 to -125 on the money line around town.)

The result of the coin toss is included, along with the team to score first and the team to score last. The bulk of the props are tied to individual players.

“We tried to get the most popular props, the ones that are easiest to understand but that also stir up the most interest,” Kornegay said.

The Westgate has expanded its contest repertoire over the past couple of years, building on the success of its flagship NFL seasonlong SuperContest. The sportsbook has held smaller-scale competitions for baseball win totals. NBA win totals, the Golden Knights and college bowl games.

Line check

The Super Bowl line remained at a consensus of Chiefs -1 with a total of 54½ on Monday. A few sportsbooks had the Chiefs -1½, and a few had the total at 55.

The Westgate was sitting at the consensus line. Kornegay said the tickets were still heavily weighted toward the Chiefs (66 percent) and over (84 percent), but that was down from the initial betting of 80 percent on the Chiefs and more than 90 percent on the over.

Kornegay said he still expected to see mostly over money heading into the kickoff, and he could see the total going to 55½, but probably not 56.

“This is the one event that public money controls almost everything,” he said. “People want to root for things to happen. They want to root for scoring.”

William Hill said in a release that 58 percent of tickets and 68 percent of the money wagered are on the Chiefs across all of its U.S. books. As for the total, 84 percent of tickets and 86 percent of the money are on the over.

Musburger event

The South Point will host its second annual “Betting & Beers with Brent” event with broadcaster Brent Musburger from 4 to 6 p.m. Saturday at the Showroom.

Musburger will be joined for a sports betting seminar with VSiN’s Matt Youmans and Vinny Magliulo, South Point sportsbook director Chris Andrews and oddsmaker Jimmy Vaccaro.

The panel will break down the Super Bowl, along with hundreds of prop bets. The event is free and open to the public.

Contact Jim Barnes at jbarnes@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0277. Follow @JimBarnesLV on Twitter.