Super Bowl 2016: Fake Prop Bets For The Biggest Media And Advertising Day Of The Year

LOS ANGELES — No matter what crazy prediction you might have for Super Bowl 50, chances are you’re not the first to wager on it.

Nowadays, sports books are offering prop bets — short for proposition bets — that allow people to bet on everything from the color of Beyoncé’s shoes to how many fluorescent pieces of chicken Buffalo Wild Wings will sell during the game. (The line on that is set at 12 million.)

The rise of fantasy football — and the universal appeal of gambling — helped spur the prop bet explosion on the game itself, but there’s a whole media and advertising Super Bowl that runs parallel to it, as businesses try to leverage the year’s most-watched TV broadcast for a little bit of attention. And because it would be a shame to leave any part of the game out of the prop bet fun, International Business Times is happy to suggest some hypothetical media and ad-world wagers:

With this year’s game (between the Carolina Panthers and the Denver Broncos) taking place in Silicon Valley, it’s expected that tech companies will step up their advertising spend. Amazon has already revealed its first-ever Super Bowl commercial, which is for its Echo wireless device and features Alec Baldwin and Dan Marino. But will that be the only tech and celebrity commercial pairing?

• Microsoft will debut a new commercial starring Russell Wilson: -400
• Snapchat will air one with DJ Khaled: +300
• Uber will air one with Robert De Niro: +600
• Theranos will air one with Charlie Sheen: +all the dumb VC money in the world

Super Bowl 50 advertisers are also stepping up their social media campaigns, tapping into the increasing amount of viewers who are probably paying more attention to their second screen. Some potential social media advertising fails:

• An advertiser makes a Trump joke; Trump turns his army against the "loser, dopey" brand and it backfires: even money
• Brand retweets a white nationalist account as part of hashtag campaign: +150
• Brand live-streams cursing: +200
• Brand live-streams nudity: +550

And some bonus wagers:

• A tech company will do some marketing stunt that will “disrupt the game”: +150
• It will be Yahoo: +300
• It will be panned by internet analysts: +500
• The stunt will turn out to just be an advertisement for a Chinese e-commerce company: +800
• A bitcoin company will advertise around the coin toss: +250
• Someone will sell his Super Bowl ticket and be paid in bitcoin: +500
• In five years, those bitcoins will have monetary value: +1000

Automakers are by far the biggest Super Bowl advertisers and have produced some of the game’s most memorable commercials, such as the Chrysler spots featuring Clint Eastwood and Eminem. What might be in store this year?

• A truck commercial: -5000
• A truck commercial prominently featuring a muddy boot: -1000
• A Tesla commercial: +500
• A GM commercial mentioning Flint: +2000
• A Vespa commercial: +5000

Fast food is another super-sized source of Super Bowl ads. Some likely candidates to serve up spots this year are:

• Chipotle, stressing a commitment to food safety: -500
• McDonald's, talking about breakfast all day, even after the game: -200
• Taco Bell, reminding us that they, too, serve breakfast: -150
• Wendy’s, talking drive-thru etiquette with former assistant coach Joe Cullen: +8000

And, finally, with this being legendary quarterback and pitchman Peyton Manning’s last game, it wouldn’t be a surprise if some of his classic commercials were revisited:

• “Football On Your Phone”: -300
• “Cut That Meat”: +200
• “Football Cops”: +500