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2012 Super Bowl Prop Bets: How Should You "Spend" Your Money On Sunday?

Anybody can place a bet on the outcome of Super Bowl 46. That's an easy way to do things if you're into gambling. But for the truly degenerate gamblers out there, the Super Bowl gives them. . .okay, "us". . .a way to bet their hard-earned money on all sorts of things.

Yes, folks, I'm talking about "prop" bets. Now, when I say a prop bet, I'm not talking about something from Carrot Top's Vegas show. No, "prop" is short for "proposition," and these bets are on things that may or may not be related to the game itself. Our friends at Bovada have provided a huge amount of prop bets, and here are five that should end up in easy money for you.

For entertainment purposes only, of course.

How Many Times Will Peyton Manning Be Shown On Television During The Game?

  • Four times or more (-130)
  • Three times or less (-110)

They're joking with this one, right? You might be able to cash this one in by the end of the first quarter. Manning the Elder has already gotten a ton of coverage this week. . .you don't think NBC is going to slap him on TV every chance they get?

Smart Bet: Over. . .way over.

How Long Will It Take Kelly Clarkson To Complete The National Anthem?

  • Over one minute, 34 seconds (-130)
  • Under one minute, 34 seconds (-110)

Kelly Clarkson is one hell of a singer, and she's done this before. . .she performed the anthem at both the 2010 World Series and last year's NBA Finals. Both performances measured in at between 92 and 93 seconds, depending on your stopwatch. She's been singing this song for years, and appears to have it pretty much down. So, if she's been consistently under 94 seconds thus far, no reason to think she'll go over that this evening. Oh, and don't bother with the bet about whether or not she'll forget a word during the anthem. . .you're just throwing your money away there.

Smart Bet: Under

How Many Times Will David Tyree's Catch From Super Bowl XLII Be Shown During The Game?

  • Over 1.5 times (EVEN)
  • Under 1.5 times (-140)

Well, it is one of the greatest plays in Super Bowl history, and it did happen with these same two teams. You can bet that if the game is close at the end and one team has an opportunity to put together a last-minute drive for a victory, you're going to see the play. That likely gives us one. . .and my guess is that the NBC folks find a way to sneak it in at least once more during the action this evening.

Smart Bet: Over

How Many Viewers Will Stream The Super Bowl Online?

  • Over 1.5 million (-120)
  • Under 1.5 million (-120)

This is an interesting one. . .for the first time ever, NBC Sports is going to be offering a totally live, totally free stream of the game online. Now, I understand that the Super Bowl is a big social gathering sort of deal, and that you might not think that a lot of people would be watching it online. Then again, there's a lot of people who might grab onto the idea just for the whole "hey, this is sort of cool" aspect of it. It's going to be a close one, but I'll go with the technology to prevail. Incidentally, I don't know how they're going to measure this. . .but I'm sure it will be a news story by the end of the night.

Smart Bet: Over

Who Will The Super Bowl MVP Thank First In Their Post-Game Speech?

  • Teammates (1/1)
  • Coach (12/1)
  • Family (8/1)
  • God (4/1)
  • Owner (6/1)
  • Does not thank anybody (5/2)

The likelihood is that, in this speech, the individual that's named the game's MVP will get around to thanking everyone listed above, but this really depends on who gets the award. In this case, since I personally anticipate the MVP award to go to one Tom Brady, I'm going to go with a bit of a long shot here and say that he thanks Patriots' owner Robert Kraft before he thanks anyone else.

Smart Bet: Owner

And there you have it, folks. There are no shortage of other prop bets that you can make on this game, and you can check them all out at the link above.

Photographs by Micah Taylor, clairity, and Fibonacci Blue used in background montage under Creative Commons. Thank you.