There’s no better place to start a Super Bowl 50 betting preview than with the betting line. It opened at CAR -3.5, but has since ballooned up by two points and might double by the time we get to kick-off on Sunday. Everyone is taking the Panthers, but a small faction is siding with the point cushion the Broncos are boasting.

Breaking down a Super Bowl 50 betting preview isn’t easy from two standpoints. First off, about a bazillion people are writing about this game. The second part is that anyone who has half a brain and watched Carolina this season knows that they’re the better team in this game.

Let’s be frank about this. The Broncos own an advantage on defense when it comes to the tale of the tape, but the Panthers have a clear advantage when it comes to offense. Carolina was the second best scoring team in the league this year, and have continued to put up huge numbers in the playoffs. Denver, meanwhile, is a shell of what it was two seasons ago.

That’s why a ton of action is standing behind Cam Newton and the Panthers in this one. Are there any reasons to bet on Denver? That’s actually a pretty good place to start.

There’s no better place to start a Super Bowl 50 betting preview than with the betting line. It opened at CAR -3.5, but has since ballooned up by two points and might double by the time we get to kick-off on Sunday. Everyone is taking the Panthers, but a small faction is siding with the point cushion the Broncos are boasting.

Breaking down a Super Bowl 50 betting preview isn’t easy from two standpoints. First off, about a bazillion people are writing about this game. The second part is that anyone who has half a brain and watched Carolina this season knows that they’re the better team in this game.

Let’s be frank about this. The Broncos own an advantage on defense when it comes to the tale of the tape, but the Panthers have a clear advantage when it comes to offense. Carolina was the second best scoring team in the league this year, and have continued to put up huge numbers in the playoffs. Denver, meanwhile, is a shell of what it was two seasons ago.

That’s why a ton of action is standing behind Cam Newton and the Panthers in this one. Are there any reasons to bet on Denver? That’s actually a pretty good place to start.

Cam Newton is waging an impossible war this week, and it’s not even against the Denver Broncos. Instead, he is facing an uphill battle against race relations within the NFL. Most of it is from racist idiots on Twitter, but a lot of it is being perpetuated by the media.

This particular frenzy is popping up at an opportune time. It’s black history month. Some girl I used to have a crush on from Clueless raved about how we don’t need to celebrate such an occasion. So naturally, people are going to gravitate towards the fascination that Cam Newton is a black quarterback (or African American if that’s what he prefers).

The question isn’t about black quarterbacks. It’s more so about running quarterbacks. Well beyond that, it’s about whether or not the old guard of the NFL is ready to accept that a new type of athlete could potentially play the position.

I’m not attempting to strafe from the argument about race. I made a point last week that discussions over “mobile quarterbacks” will often abandon a sense of dignity and begin to reek of racism. But we can attempt to alleviate the conversation if we look at this from an historical perspective.

Cam Newton is waging an impossible war this week, and it’s not even against the Denver Broncos. Instead, he is facing an uphill battle against race relations within the NFL. Most of it is from racist idiots on Twitter, but a lot of it is being perpetuated by the media.

This particular frenzy is popping up at an opportune time. It’s black history month. Some girl I used to have a crush on from Clueless raved about how we don’t need to celebrate such an occasion. So naturally, people are going to gravitate towards the fascination that Cam Newton is a black quarterback (or African American if that’s what he prefers).

The question isn’t about black quarterbacks. It’s more so about running quarterbacks. Well beyond that, it’s about whether or not the old guard of the NFL is ready to accept that a new type of athlete could potentially play the position.

I’m not attempting to strafe from the argument about race. I made a point last week that discussions over “mobile quarterbacks” will often abandon a sense of dignity and begin to reek of racism. But we can attempt to alleviate the conversation if we look at this from an historical perspective.

In the past we’ve done the MGM indicator and extended it into boxing with Mayweather Pacquiao. The MGM indicator turns green when visitor volume there increases. It generally means that people have more money in their pockets to gamble with, and provides a decent proxy for how much people are willing to spend in the rest of the economy. MGM volume is up 2% over the last 9 months, so we’re not in any bust phase yet. While the cue won’t give investors any workable clues as to when and when not to buy MGM specifically, it does seem to work for the rest of the economy.

The last time the MGM indicator went green was in November of 2014. MGM itself hasn’t done much since then in terms of its stock price, and neither has the US stock market in general, but the economy does continue to trudge slowly forward with unemployment continuing to step down. There may be another important proxy indicator in the Super Bowl, and what direction it moves in this year could say a lot about where we are headed in 2016 and 2017.

The LA Times had a telling piece out yesterday plotting regulated Las Vegas betting on Super Bowls since 2003. Here’s the chart:

There are three notable things about the data here. First, we saw a peak in regulated Super Bowl betting in 2006, the same year the housing market topped. Second, after that the numbers dragged down slowly through 2008, and 2009 was the huge drop off, for obvious reasons. Then there was a big boom in 2014 followed by the first drop in regulated Super Bowl betting volume since 2008. The last time that happened we were two and a half years away from a major recession, so the numbers could be quite telling this year.  Considering the size of the boom though from 2013 to 2014, last year’s drop could simply be noise from any number of factors, but if the drop continues it could mean trouble.

Sure, you could bet on the actual football, but where’s the fun in that?

Super Bowl 50 kicks off this Sunday and there will be millions of people watching because they’ve got something on the line. Whether you are betting at a casino in Las Vegas, through an online sportsbook or with your friends, almost everyone is wagering something on the Super Bowl.

The Carolina Panthers are currently listed as a 6-point favorite to win against the Denver Broncos but let’s set the traditional betting aside for a moment and go to a more exciting aspect of Super Bowl: the prop bets!

So courtesy of Bodog, here are some fun and a few silly props that you might want to wager on.

Sure, you could bet on the actual football, but where’s the fun in that?

Super Bowl 50 kicks off this Sunday and there will be millions of people watching because they’ve got something on the line. Whether you are betting at a casino in Las Vegas, through an online sportsbook or with your friends, almost everyone is wagering something on the Super Bowl.

The Carolina Panthers are currently listed as a 6-point favorite to win against the Denver Broncos but let’s set the traditional betting aside for a moment and go to a more exciting aspect of Super Bowl: the prop bets!

So courtesy of Bodog, here are some fun and a few silly props that you might want to wager on.

When: 6:30 PM ET, Sunday, February 7, 2016

Where: Levi’s Stadium, Santa Clara, California

The public perception believes that the Carolina Panthers will blowout the Denver Broncos hence the line movement has been rapidly trending in favor of Carolina with good reason as the Panthers had 8 double-digits victories in the regular season and the public probably recalls what happened in Super Bowl 48.

On the first snap of that particular game Peyton Manning mishandled the snap and had to take a safety to start the landslide by the Seattle Seahawks. Another reason for this continuing trend by the public to make Carolina favorite heavier is they firmly believe that Cam Newton of the Carolina Panthers will dominate the Denver Bronco defense and the Carolina Panther defense will stuff Peyton Manning.

When: 6:30 PM ET, Sunday, February 7, 2016

Where: Levi’s Stadium, Santa Clara, California

The public perception believes that the Carolina Panthers will blowout the Denver Broncos hence the line movement has been rapidly trending in favor of Carolina with good reason as the Panthers had 8 double-digits victories in the regular season and the public probably recalls what happened in Super Bowl 48.

On the first snap of that particular game Peyton Manning mishandled the snap and had to take a safety to start the landslide by the Seattle Seahawks. Another reason for this continuing trend by the public to make Carolina favorite heavier is they firmly believe that Cam Newton of the Carolina Panthers will dominate the Denver Bronco defense and the Carolina Panther defense will stuff Peyton Manning.

If you want to bet on Oakland Raiders moving to Las Vegas, think again.

Raiders’ owner Mark Davis paid a visit to Sin City for a meeting with Las Vegas Sands boss Sheldon Adelson on Friday. Davis toured the 42-acre site that could host a proposed $1.2 billion stadium in University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), which will push through with or without an NFL team.

Hours after the meeting, the NFL distributed a memo to all 32 teams’ PR directors specifically addressing the talk of Las Vegas as a possible destination for an NFL team.

The memo stated that “There is no prohibition under league rules on a team moving to any particular city.” In other words, the league doesn’t have a set policy against playing in Las Vegas. However, any move would have to get the support of 24 owners or three-fourths of the member clubs. And it’s very, very unlikely that 24 owners would vote to allow the Raiders to move to Las Vegas.

The San Diego Chargers could be following the St. Louis Rams to their new digs in Los Angeles, but not for another year, at least.

On Friday, Chargers chairman Dean Spanos (pictured) announced that the NFL team would be staying in San Diego for the 2016 season “and I hope for the long term in a new stadium.” Spanos said he hoped to work with the city’s mayor and supervisor as well as the business community to “resolve our stadium dilemma.”

However, Spanos also confirmed that he’d inked “an option and an agreement with the Los Angeles Rams to go to Inglewood in the next year.” Two weeks ago, NFL owners approved a plan that would allow the Rams and Chargers to share the Inglewood stadium that will be completed in 2019.

While Spanos insisted that his “focus is on San Diego,” he cautioned that “everyone on both sides of the table … must now determine … how to deploy the additional resources provided by the NFL.” The NFL has pledged up to $300m in loans and grants for a new $1.8b stadium in San Diego, should the Chargers decide to stay.