NFL betting: The public is jumping all over a Bills Super Bowl title in 2022
Buffalo may have gotten bounced in the divisional round of the 2021 NFL playoffs, but quarterback Josh Allen and his team left the kind of impression on bettors that Bills Mafia leaves on tables. The AFC East champs opened as +750 co-favorites on BetMGM to win the 2022 Super Bowl and nearly a fifth of all the money wagered so far is betting on them to finally break through and claim the Lombardi Trophy next year.
The public likes the AFC
The four most popular Super Bowl bets hail from the AFC. A tick over 14% of bettors have futures on Buffalo, followed by the Chiefs (8.6%), Bengals (6.9%) and Titans (5.9%). Those four represent the final four AFC teams left standing after this year's wild-card round. Kansas City shares the same +750 odds as the Bills, while Cincinnati is +1200 and Tennessee is +2200.
The public is about as enthused to wager on the newly crowned champion Rams as their fan base is to attend regular season home games. Only 5.3% of tickets are betting on a successful Hollywood sequel next season, which would pay +1100.
Something in the Denver air
Despite finishing 7-10 this year, the Broncos (+1600) opened with the sixth-best odds to win it all in 2022 and have received the sixth-most action (5.1%). These odds and wagers are factoring in the possibility of Denver acquiring the one glaring piece they're missing to be a Super Bowl contender: a quarterback. Could this price be a Rodgers rate? The Broncos have cap space in the neighborhood of $48 million and could afford to reunite Aaron Rodgers — and maybe even wide receiver Davante Adams — with former Packers offensive coordinator and current Broncos head coach Nathaniel Hackett.
Who will be next year's Bengals?
Cincinnati opened 2021 as a +8000 long shot to win the Super Bowl, then saw those odds balloon to +15000 during the early part of the season. Lions fans believe their team can replicate that magical Bengals run. Michigan bettors, notorious for laying hard-earned cash on their sports teams, have made Detroit the seventh-most popular bet on the board at 4.5%. Dan Campbell's Lions are +15000 to win the Super Bowl, tying them with the Texans and Jets for longest odds. New York ranks 13th in terms of support, with 2.8% of tickets on the Jets. That's more bet slips than the Ravens, Steelers, Colts or Patriots have seen.
The teams getting no love
In bettors' minds, the Lombardi Trophy's not going to Carolina. The Panthers are the least bet on team, coming in at just 0.4% of tickets. Atlanta and Cleveland round out the bottom three. Tampa Bay, who fielded the most Super Bowl futures of any team throughout the 2021 season and heading into the playoffs, ranks 26th in ticket percentage now that Tom Brady is retired.
