The matchup for the biggest game of the year is official. The AFC champion Cincinnati Bengals will take on the NFC champion Los Angles Rams in Super Bowl 56.
It was yet another electric football weekend, with two games both decided by a mere three points. Now Super Bowl betting fans are getting ready for one of the most improbable matchups of all time.
It will be the first Super Bowl where you can place sports bets in Arizona legally. One sportsbook in the Grand Canyon State gave us an idea of how people feel about the Rams and the Bengals ahead of the season.
A portion of Arizonans on WynnBet Sportsbook pick Bengals to win AFC
The Bengals were the fourth seed in the AFC and managed to make a run to the Super Bowl. However, they needed a series of nail-bitters to make it there.
As slight favorites, they beat the Las Vegas Raiders at home 26-19. Then they upset the Tennessee Titans as road underdogs in a 19-16 win. Finally, after being down 18 points on the road, they upset Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs in overtime, 27-24.
But according to WynnBet Sportsbook, a solid portion of Arizonans pegged the Bengals as AFC Champions.
Cincinnati received 12.7% of bets placed in Arizona to win the AFC. While that number may not seem high, you have to consider that the Bengals had +7500 odds to win the AFC Championship before the season started. That’s the largest preseason odds for a conference champion over the past 20 years.
Cincinnati was tied with the New York Jets for the second-longest odds to win the AFC title. Only the Houston Texans had longer odds.
Love for Cardinals pushed Arizonans from picking Rams to win NFC
Meanwhile, Arizonans had a clear favorite in the NFC. Most WynnBet AZ users were rolling with the home-state Arizona Cardinals to make it to the Super Bowl.
The Cardinals got 41.9% of the bets placed on WynnBet for the NFC champion. Far and away more than their NFC West rival Los Angeles Rams.
WynnBet says the Rams only 8.5% of the wagers in Arizona to win the conference. Before the season, the Rams’ odds to win the NFC Championship was +650. LA was one of the preseason favorites. However, the hot 7-0 start for the Cardinals quickly shifted odds away from the Rams.
Once the playoffs started, the Rams had moved to +450 to win the NFC. But that was behind teams like the Green Bay Packers (+160) and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (+350). LA would go on to throttle the Cardinals in the Wild Card round before upsetting Tom Brady and the Buccaneers on the road.
But it was in the NFC Championship game where the Rams showed their resilience. Down 10 points to the rival San Francisco 49ers in the 4th quarter, LA stormed back and won the game 20-17.
Super Bowl LVI the lowest-seeded matchup ever?
The Super Bowl between the and make history.
It will be the lowest-seeded Super Bowl matchup in the game’s 56-year history.
The Bengals and Rams entered the postseason as their conference’s No. 4 seed. Cincinnati finished the regular season 10-7 and as AFC North champions, while LA finished 12-5 as NFC West champions.
It will be the first Super Bowl ever without at least one No. 1, No. 2 or No. 3 seed team. The matchup also surpasses Super Bowl XLV between the NFC six-seed Green Bay Packers and the AFC 2-seed Pittsburgh as the highest-seeded Super Bowl in history. Green Bay won that game, 31-25.
The Bengals-Rams clash also features the most combined losses between two Super Bowl opponents with 12. Keep in mind there is the new 17-game regular season to factor in, but it is a record nonetheless. It surpasses Super Bowl XIV between the Rams and Steelers and Super Bowl XLIII between the Cardinals and Steelers, where there was a combined 11 losses between the opponents.
At the end of the day, forget about the low seedings. Expect the Rams and Bengals to put on an entertaining Super Bowl to put the cherry on top of an incredible NFL postseason with several games with thrilling endings.
