The Super Bowl “Script” Sees Shortened Odds for a 37-34 Eagles Win Over the Chiefs

A popular internet meme has prodded a large number of sports bettors to predict the exact score outcome of this Sunday’s Super Bowl. That’s just 2023 for you.

The meme was born during a podcast with former NFL running back Arian Foster, who joked that the league had a script on how the season would play out before it even began. A now-suspended Twitter account posted a picture of the supposed script, which said that the Philadelphia Eagles would beat the Kansas City Chiefs 37-34.

As harmless as the image may have been, a final score of 37-34 is now the most popular bet in exact score outcomes on BetMGM. Other sportsbooks are also likely feeling the burn of what started as a pure joke.

According to BetMGM, the 37-34 outcome once had +25000 odds, which would pay $250 on the dollar—now, that same outcome is just +800, which would give an $8 payout for a $1 bet.

Most bet (tickets) Super Bowl correct score:

Eagles 37-34 Chiefs

Odds have moved from +25000 to +8000 at @BetMGM pic.twitter.com/TyIjjxWeyG

— John Ewing 🦁 (@johnewing) February 7, 2023

The joke started when Foster was speaking on an episode of the Barstool-sponsored podcast “Macrodosing.” Foster said that every player receives their script during the offseason and must memorize it in its entirety and that scripts can include highlight games, injuries, and more.

Fans and players alike have joined the ongoing joke of the NFL having a “script.” The meme has gotten so popular that members of other sports have joined in on the joke, with some asking what their script is and others making general comments such as “this year’s script is crazy.”

According to one industry expert, the tweet with the 37-34 Super Bowl score was viewed over 12 million times before it was taken down. Many of those viewers turned out to be sports bettors, as seen by the drop in odds.

This development comes at an incredible time for American sports betting. The American Gaming Association announced earlier this week that an estimated 50 million bettors will wager a combined $16 billion-plus, roughly a 60% increase on last year’s total, on the big game.

Further analysis revealed roughly 38% of those bets will be placed with online sportsbooks. 18% will be at a retail sportsbook, and 13% will place wagers with a bookie.

If Sunday’s Eagles-Chiefs matchup does end with a final score of 37-34, it would be the third-highest Super Bowl total in league history. The combined total of 71 points would be behind only Super Bowl XXIX in which the San Francisco 49ers beat the San Diego Chargers 49-26, and Super Bowl LII, which ended with the Eagles beating the New England Patriots 41-33.

Each of the four most recent Super Bowls have gone under their projected total, which sets the supposed script on the wrong side of history—then again, that’s why the scriptwriters make the big bucks (allegedly).

While modern history does not provide much comfort, the 2022 season stats do. The Eagles and Chiefs tied for the highest scoring average per game, 28.7, and have the presumptive top-two MVP finishers, Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts captaining their squads.

In addition, the last time the Eagles played the Chiefs in Week 4 of the 2021 season, the game ended 42-30. Although that’s not the exact 37-34 total, and the Chiefs won instead of the Eagles, it finished with a hefty total of 72 points.

Even at +800, the odds of that being the final score are still not strong—but bettors have turned to superstition before and will likely continue to do so through kick-off.

Last year, there was an influx of bets on the final score outcome of Cincinnati Bengals 34, Los Angeles Rams 31, because of a viral photoshopped image from an episode of The Simpsons. One of America’s most successful cartoons ever has a freakish history of accurately predicting future events, and bettors were tricked into thinking the show’s writers had the early version of “the script.”