Place Your Bets: Super Bowl 2013

Even if you aren’t a fan of the 49ers or the Ravens, there’s still a way to enjoy this weekend’s Super Bowl — gambling. Las Vegas is expecting that more than $90 million will be bet on the big game.

Just like with investing, gamblers can either choose to play it as safely as possible or go with the risky prospects that will yield the largest rewards. Also like investing, there’s no such thing as a sure thing.

There are the big bets — which team will win — and the simple bets — like if the coin flip will be heads or tails. The San Francisco 49ers are the favored winners.

Given that the teams’ coaches are brothers — John and Jim Harbaugh — one of the over/under bets is how many times their father, Jack, will be shown on TV. One would expect that considering he’s got two sons coaching in the Super Bowl, the Harbaugh patriarch will definitely be shown more than the 1.5 times listed. And yet, last year Eli Manning was playing in the Super Bowl hosted at Indianapolis and Peyton Manning (still the Colts quarterback at that time) wasn’t shown at all on TV.

Don’t know anything about the game of football, but you have the itch to indulge in a little gambling? There’s always the entertainment. Beyoncé is the halftime show this year and you can place a bet on whether or not her husband Jay-Z will join her on stage (Yes +110, No -150).

As with investing, it would be prudent to hedge some of your bets. If you decide to bet on the Ravens winning the Super Bowl, then you might want to place money on 49ers’ running back Frank Gore having a big game — maybe even scoring the first touchdown.