The Coin Toss Super Bowl Bet: Uncle Fester Picks Heads

He's creepy and he's spooky and all together ooky, but for those of you looking to place a bet on that all encompassing Super Bowl coin toss, Uncle Fester from TheSpread.com has the winner on the coin flip....and it makes perfect sense.

"For the most part, this is a dead on 50/50 shot. The books are charging anywhere from -105 to -115 depending on what book you shop at. Looking at the math, the books are "overcharging" the true odds and should be viewed as a "junkie" or "just for the hell of it" wager. Of the 41 prior Super Bowls, heads has a 21-20 edge. You will hear talk about how the coin is weighted due to the raised images on one side over the other, but despite the slight edge, DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE! This is offset by the juice being charged by the sportsbooks."

Fester says "Heads" but what he's really trying to tell us is that the bookies are charging a hefty bit of coin to place this bet.

We looked at Sports Interaction -  a big endorsed by both Gambling911.com and Fester at TheSpread.com - and we find that, while SIA is charging on the low end of the price spectrum (-110), it's still too much.  Essentially one has to bet $1.10 to win $1.00 (you receive the initial $1.10 bet back only if it's a winner).

The coin toss Super Bowl bet is the quintessential "tourist trap" - you just gotta place the bet even though you know you're getting gauged. 

"The books get away with this because it's a popular bet," explains Payton O'Brien, Senior Editor of the Gambling911.com website.  "The coin toss is the ‘mother of all Super Bowl bets', the one all the media focuses on, and it's the very first bet determined as a winner or a loser."

Fester - AKA Michael Cash - is a winner in our book....even if he has the worst luck in the world, hence, the reason why we are going with "tails". 

"He can also flip coins off his head and catch them with his tongue," O'Brien said.

Dan Shapiro, Gambling911.com