Fueled by a fourth-quarter comeback to beat the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday, the Los Angeles Rams have claimed favorite status to win Super Bowl LVI, according to analysts TheLines, which tracks odds in the U.S. regulated sports betting market.
The Rams are favored by 4 points to beat the Cincinnati Bengals in the Super Bowl on Feb. 12. The over/under total has been set at 49.5 points, according to a consensus of the nation’s largest legal online sportsbooks — including DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM, BetRivers, Caesars, and PointsBet.
“These playoff games have been as thrilling as any in NFL history and the stage is set for a similar Super Bowl, despite a matchup that not many expected,” said Brett Collson, lead analyst for TheLines.com. “From Tampa Bay to Green Bay to Kansas City, the favorites dropped. This matchup is compelling from many viewpoints, including the quarterback battle between Joe Burrow and Matthew Stafford will draw a lot of attention.”
Stafford played for 12 seasons with the perpetually struggling Detroit Lions before an offseason trade sent him to the Rams prior to this season. With a collection of veteran talent like Aaron Donald, Odell Beckham Jr., Von Miller and Cooper Kupp surrounding him, Stafford has the Rams in the franchise’s fifth Super Bowl. The Rams are 1-4 in their history, with the lone win coming in the 1999 season against Tennessee.
The Rams opened the season at +1500 to win the Super Bowl and now find themselves favored to win and playing on their home field at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. This is the second straight season that the Super Bowl is being played at the home stadium of one of the participants: The Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Kansas City Chiefs last year at Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium.
Only two teams — the Houston Texans and Detroit Lions — had longer preseason odds to win the Super Bowl than the Bengals, who opened the season at +15000. And Cincinnati was a 150-1 shot at BetMGM after a Week 2 loss to the Chicago Bears. Yet Cincinnati knocked off the Las Vegas Raiders on Wild Card Weekend and ousted top-seeded Tennessee in the Divisional round. Burrow and the Bengals then went to Kansas City and shocked the 7.5-point-favorite Chiefs on Sunday to record the franchise’s first Super Bowl appearance since the 1988 season.
Cincinnati is 0-2 all-time in Super Bowls, with both losses coming to the San Francisco 49ers. The Bengals are one of 12 NFL franchises to have never won the championship game. Burrow is seeking to become the first player in football history to win the Heisman Trophy, a college national championship, and the Super Bowl.