Dave Reardon: Bet on it, Super Bowl winner will be DoorDash
Feb. 11—After exhausting minutes of arduous research, thoroughly exploring every angle, I've made my pick for Super Bowl winner.
After exhausting minutes of arduous research, thoroughly exploring every angle, I've made my pick for Super Bowl winner.
My money's on DoorDash, where somebody came up with the GOAT of marketing ideas.
Commercials are weird. We hate them all year, except for one day in February, Super Sunday. Then we love'em.
DoorDash is taking advantage of that phenomenon with its All The Ads promotion, where one lucky winner will get something representing every commercial during the Super Bowl—delivered, naturally, by DoorDash. They really do mean every ad, and the prizes include everything from chips to three vehicles.
They can't give you insurance for the automobiles because of legal issues, but there is a red polo and khakis from State Farm. Also, you won't get a Clydesdale from Budweiser. But a saddle for one ? Yes.
And when they say every ad, they mean every ad—there's even a $100 gift card from DoorDash's direct competitor, Uber Eats.
You can see the growing list of goodies and how to enter the sweepstakes at doordash-all-the-ads.com. This is some unprecedented bold, brilliance ... assuming that they, um, deliver on their promises.
Rumor has it that between the commercials and the halftime entertainment there's a football game, too.
"It's slowly building up, " said Tony Ramos, who is from Kahuku but lives in Las Vegas. "Beginning of the week it was kind of calm. However, fans (are ) beginning to arrive. Notice lots of Niners fans cruising in some casinos, repping their colors. Buzz in the sports books is money's on the Niners."
Maybe the late, smart money.
Published reports as of early Saturday afternoon said most wagers (and total dollars ) had been placed on Kansas City, the defending champions and 2-point underdogs in this game. But one thing I've learned is that the spread can change very quickly.
Ramos works as chef instructor at Le Cordon Bleu. He said he thinks Kansas City will win, and not because of that Snickers commercial where the guy painting the team nickname in the end zone leaves out the "i " by mistake.
"Defense wins championships, " he said.
Both teams played great second-half defense in winning their conference championship games.
Not that it means very much, but if you add the total scores of the conference championship games and divide by two, you get 46.
The over /under in this game is 47.5, and if I could place a legal bet in this state, I'd probably place one on the under.
If you've ever talked with me about sports betting, you know I almost always like the under.
Why ?
Because it's human nature to prefer the over and bet on it and not the under. People want to see touchdowns, and they'd rather know if they've won their bet without having to squeeze until the game is over. And since the sports books know this, the over /under is often higher than it should be.
About now you might be thinking, "OK, smart—s. If that's true, why aren't you a millionaire professional gambler ?"
Here's why I won't quit my day job any time soon : In the five previous NFL seasons, the under hit 700 times to 644 for the over, according to actionnetwork.com in 2022. That's 52.1 % for the under, meaning if you bet the under every game, you'd win ... but usually not enough to cover the juice at a sports book.
It's very hard to beat the house. But do try this at home ... it's easy to find friends who will take the over, and you will usually win your social (and legal ) wager.
