Prop betting began as another way to bet the Super Bowl and has grown into major wagering attraction

Then Art Manteris at Caesars Palace had an idea. The Bears were identified by their defense, and one of their tackles, William “Refrigerator” Perry, had created national buzz by lining up at fullback and scoring touchdowns on goal-line plays. So Manteris came up with a separate bet on whether the 340-pound Perry would score a touchdown in the Super Bowl against the New England Patriots.

“It was the biggest thing that ever happened to the prop bet because it made everybody say, ‘What the hell’s going on?'” said longtime oddsmaker Jimmy Vaccaro, who now works for South Point in Las Vegas.

Thus a wagering craze began to take hold, expanding into a monster during the leadup to the Super Bowl and moving on to other sports, such as the NCAA Tournament. The women's Final Four is Friday and the men play on Saturday, and there is no shortage of possibilities in markets where prop betting is legal on college sports.

At BetMGM Sportsbook, for example, Duke's Cooper Flagg is a +105 favorite to be named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. UConn's Paige Bueckers is the -150 favorite on the women's side.

DraftKings Sportsbook offers odds such as whether there will be at least two buzzer-beaters on the men's side. That's +900 for someone willing to take a flyer. Someone could bet at +25000 that there will be at least a 25-point comeback on the women's side.

“It’s a game within a game, or several games within a game,” famed former oddsmaker Roxy Roxborough wrote in an email. “So, it allows bettors to have more action on the games. That’s fundamental.”

That was the thinking at Imperial Palace in the 1990s at a time when the Super Bowl was anything by super. The NFC dominated the AFC, winning 13 in a row with many games decided either by halftime or shortly afterward.

Sportsbook director Jay Kornegay and his team wanted to find a way to keep gamblers engaged even if the games became one-sided. Prop betting was that way.

“It was just to entertain everyone,” said Kornegay, who retired in November. “They became so popular that they became a revenue stream as well. So we thought, the more propositions we had, it would take some of that weight off the Super Bowl game itself because Super Bowl Sunday was a do-or-die situation for our operators back then. You won the game or lost the game.”

Now sportsbooks try to see if they can top each other during every Super Bowl — and other major sporting events.

Who can get more creative? Who can attract the most attention?

There also are concerns about prop betting, especially when it comes to wagering on college sports. Some states don't allow such wagers, and more than half of U.S. adults in a recent poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research were against legalized professional betting on collegiate contests.

“Bookmakers will have to get pretty particular about props from this day forward because they’re under a lot of fire, especially in college sports,” Roxborough wrote. “Some states will likely restrict props, especially in college sports. However, the new bookmakers constantly push the limits on what they can and cannot do. I expect it to be a back-and-forth tussle with the regulators.”

Vaccaro remembered that 1985 Bears team and the Super Bowl prop that the rest of the Las Vegas Strip was forced to copy.

He opened the odds at about 40-1 at Golden Nugget and had to drop it to 10-1 when money poured in on the Fridge to score.

Which he did.

“I was glad he did, even though we took a beating on that game,” Vaccaro said. “It proved it was a nice prop.”

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Credit: AP

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

Credit: AP