Popular Super Bowl exactas offer long odds at sportsbooks

As one of the final four NFL teams, the Bengals’ odds to win the Super Bowl are down to 8-1 after soaring as high as 200-1 this season.

But bettors can still get higher odds than 8-1 on Cincinnati to win the franchise’s first Lombardi Trophy in the ever-popular Super Bowl exactas market, which is offered at Circa Sports, Caesars Sportsbook and the South Point.

The exact Super Bowl result of the Bengals over the San Francisco 49ers pays +2,550, or 25½-1, at Circa Sports, and Cincinnati over the Los Angeles Rams pays +1,650, or 16½-1.

“As always, this is a hugely popular market that gives the bettors bigger payouts vs. the standard Super Bowl outright when the teams are reduced,” Caesars Sportsbook vice president of trading Craig Mucklow said. “Our biggest liability is the Bengals over San Francisco. It’s amazing how the Bengals were under the radar all year. Now the public are believers in the Joe Burrow-Ja’Marr Chase tandem.”

Before the playoffs started, a Cincinnati-over-San Francisco exacta was a 200-1 long shot at Circa, which has taken a ton of action on the Super Bowl exactas.

“The public absolutely loves the exactas,” Circa oddsmaker Chris Bennett said. “Every option is pretty much long odds, which the public likes. A team that’s 5-1 to win the Super Bowl is going to have an exacta that’s possibly 50-1 or higher.

“The market I put up at the beginning of the playoffs, when there were 14 teams and 98 possibilities for exactas, I could not be happier with the number of tickets and amount of money bet into that pool.”

South Point sportsbook director Chris Andrews agreed, describing the action as “fantastic.”

The Bengals have played in two Super Bowls, losing both to Joe Montana’s 49ers. San Francisco over Cincinnati, which pays +1,675 at Circa, is the worst-case scenario for exactas at the South Point, and all exactas involving the Bengals are losing results for Circa.

“Which I’m comfortable with because we do OK to the Bengals in the regular Super Bowl market,” Bennett said. “Exactas are now a meaningful component of our futures position.”

The Rams over the Bengals pays 10-1 at Caesars, where the exacta is the book’s second-largest liability.

In Sunday’s AFC title game, Kansas City is a consensus 7-point favorite over Cincinnati. In the NFC championship, the Rams are 3½-point favorites over the 49ers.

“We were Bengals fans outright,” Mucklow said. “But these liabilities might actually make us Chiefs fans.”

Kansas City is the +120 favorite at Circa to win the Super Bowl, followed by Los Angeles at +215 and San Francisco at +435.

The Chiefs-defeat-Rams exacta pays +235, and Los Angeles over Kansas City pays +325. Both exactas were 30-1 shots before the playoffs started.

The Chiefs over the 49ers pays +450, and San Francisco over Kansas City pays +750.

Possible Super Bowl lines

Here are the lines on the four possible Super Bowl matchups at the Westgate SuperBook:

— Chiefs (-2½) over Rams (total 53)

— Chiefs (-3) over 49ers (total 50)

— Rams (-3½) over Bengals (total 51½)

— 49ers (-2½) over Bengals (total 48½).

Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com. Follow @tdewey33 on Twitter.