Nevada sportsbooks set new Super Bowl betting record, third-highest win total

The game might have been mind-numbingly boring, but Super Bowl 50 proved a record setter for Nevada sports betting operators.

According to figures released Monday by the Nevada Gaming Control Board, the state’s 194 licensed sportsbooks took in $132.5m in Super Bowl wagers this year, handily beating the previous record of $119.4m set two years ago at Super Bowl XLVIII.

Betting handle may have set a record, but 2016’s big game ranked only third on the all-time win total, behind 2014’s record $19.7m and 2005’s $15.4m The books held 10.1% of this year’s Super Bowl wagers, the eighth highest rate since the state began keeping records in 1991. That’s well back of 2014’s record 16.5% hold but much better than the abysmal 2.8% the books reported last year.

The positive result marked the eighth straight year the books have turned a profit on the Super Bowl since the Giants upset the Pats in 2008, one of only two years in which the books lost money on the big game.