‘All Kelce, all the time’: Bettors pound Chief’s Super Bowl TD props
Taylor Swift isn’t the only one who’s enamored with Travis Kelce.
Super Bowl prop bettors are all over the Chiefs tight end.
“It’s all Kelce, all the time,” Westgate SuperBook vice president of risk Ed Salmons said.
Kelce is the ticket leader at the SuperBook, Circa Sports, Station Sports and Caesars Sportsbook to score the first touchdown in the first Super Bowl in Las Vegas.
The career postseason receptions leader (156) also is the runaway ticket leader at Caesars to score a touchdown at any time in Sunday’s game against the 49ers at Allegiant Stadium.
“There’s more wagers with him in parlays to score anytime than there are on the 49ers money line and spread bets put together,” Caesars vice president of trading Craig Mucklow said.
Kelce is the +750 third choice at Circa to score the first TD behind Kansas City running back Isiah Pacheco (+700) and 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey, the +425 favorite.
Will Kelce score a touchdown in the game? Yes is -115 after opening at +105. No is -105 at the Westgate, where all 58 bets on the prop are on yes, Salmons said.
Will Kelce score a touchdown in the first and second half? Yes pays 10-1. All 31 wagers on the prop at the Westgate are on yes.
Will Kelce score two or more touchdowns? Yes is +550. All 18 tickets at the SuperBook are on yes.
Bettors also are backing him by a more than 15-1 margin at the SuperBook to go over 6½ catches, pushing the price from -130 to -145.
“Kelce’s on fire this week,” Salmons said. “We anticipated that, but we’re still going to rack up a decent-sized liability.
“The public really isn’t even here yet. That’s pretty impressive so far.”
Kelce had 11 catches for 116 yards and scored the first touchdown in Kansas City’s 17-10 win at Baltimore in the AFC championship game. He had five catches for 75 yards and two TDs in Kansas City’s 27-24 victory at Buffalo in the divisional round.
At Caesars, there are twice as many wagers on Kelce than McCaffrey to score the first TD and almost twice as many bets on Kelce than McCaffrey to score two or more TDs.
In the anytime touchdown market at Caesars, he has attracted four times more tickets than Pacheco, the second most-popular wager to score a TD (-125) at any time in the game.
“All the props involving Travis Kelce have been heavily bet toward the yes or the over,” Red Rock Resort sportsbook director Chuck Esposito said.
Other popular bets to score the first TD are Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and Niners fullback Kyle Juszczyk.
Mahomes, who scored the first TD of the 2020 Super Bowl against San Francisco, is 22-1 at Circa to do so again.
Juszczyk is the biggest liability for a player at Station and the SuperBook, where a bettor wagered $500 on him at 40-1 to win $20,000. He had two touchdown catches in the regular season.
The Niners also handed Juszczyk the ball on first-and-goal at the 5 in their 34-31 win over the Lions in the NFC title game. He gained three yards, and McCaffrey scored on the next play.
“The whole thing with the public is to bet a little to try to win a lot,” Salmons said. “They’re thinking he’ll catch a pass.”
The biggest liability on the market at the SuperBook is for no touchdown scored, which pays 300-1.
“That’s always popular. That always gets six figures (of liability),” Salmons said. “There’s been a few games this season that had no touchdowns.”
There were no touchdowns in the 2019 Super Bowl until Sony Michel scored on a 2-yard run to give the Patriots a 10-3 lead over the Rams en route to a 13-3 win.
“We really had a sweat on our hands on that one,” Salmons said.
Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com. Follow @tdewey33 on X.