Sports Blog 29/01/2015: Super Bowl XLIX – New England Patriots vs Seattle Seahawks, Sunday 1st February 2015

It’s the big one on Sunday, as advertising companies battle it out for the most retweets and YouTube views in one evening! In between the ads is the small matter of the Super Bowl, with last year’s champions the Seattle Seahawks ready to take on Tom Brady and the New England Patriots.

For the second year in a row, but only the third time in the last 21 NFL seasons, the top seeds from the AFC and the NFC will come together when they meet in the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. Both teams have spent the week dealing with distractions off the field; for the Seahawks, Marshawn Lynch’s reluctant media appearances, and the repetitive answers he gave, have stolen column inches. For the Patriots the issue was more serious; Bill Belichick’s side have been accused of deflating 11 of their footballs for their playoff against the Indianapolis Colts, in order to give the quarterback, i.e. Tom Brady, a better grip on the pig skin. Belichick has been adamant that the Patriots followed every rule to the letter, but the scandal has tainted their run up to the big game on Sunday.

However come Sunday these issues won’t matter and it looks set to be an incredibly tight game unlike the Seahawks’ 43-8 trouncing of the Denver Broncos last year. The focus is likely to be on three players in particular: the Patriots’ star man Tom Brady, and the impressive Seahawks’ duo of Russell Wilson and the aforementioned Marshawn Lynch. Out of the two quarterbacks, on paper Wilson edges out Brady with better pressure and accuracy percentages, but with 2 Super Bowl MVP titles to his name, Brady has an impressive history with the NFL’s biggest prize. Marshawn Lynch has had an amazing year, with no running back scoring more than his 13 rushing touchdowns this season, and reaching career highs against the Green Bay Packers in the playoffs as he rushed for 157 yards and totalled 183 yards from scrimmage.



With these figures in mind Spreadex has a host of different spreads for your betting pleasure. Our Player Performance spreads have two different sets of stipulations: for quarterbacks, the spread is made up of 3 points per completion, 1 per rushing yard, 10 points per passing or rushing touchdown, minus 5 points per turnover conceded (and remember a player must start a match for the bet to be valid). Our Spreadex traders then have the Seahawks’ Russell Wilson at 112-118, and the Patriots’ Tom Brady at 84-92. For other offensive players Spreadex offer 1 point per rushing/receiving yard, 25 points per touchdown, not including return yards. Marshawn Lynch is the big star here at 125-137, with his teammate Doug Baldwin at 62-70; for the Patriots’ both LaGarrette Blount and Rob Gronkowski are at 82-90.

We then are offering fixed odds betting on the coveted Super Bowl MVP, with Tom Brady favourite at 8/5, followed by Russell Wilson at 5/1, Marshawn Lynch at 4/1 and Rob Gronkowski at 10/1. These four men are the ones who can give their teams the edge in one of the toughest to call Super Bowl’s in years. We have a Total Points spread betting quote of 46-49; the Seahawks got 43 on their own in Super Bowl XL VIII, but it’s doubtful the Patriots will be as generous as the Broncos were in New Jersey a year ago.

With the teams almost evenly matched on paper, our traders can’t split them, and have a choice Seattle/New England Supremacy spread betting quote of -1 to 1; even the fixed odds are impossible to separate with both sides on 10/11 to win. With spreads like this, it looks set to be a112nail biter come Sunday night.