Each year, the Super Bowl has two main musical acts.
The event is the halftime show, where a standout performer gives a dazzling performance in front of the millions of viewers watching the Super Bowl at home and the thousands of people in the stadium.
The other comes just before the game and is about a celebrity turning a song into the national anthem. The former singers come with superstars like Beyoncé, Billy Joel and Mariah Carey.
In 2024, country star Reba McEntire sang the Star-Spangled Banner before Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas. He finished it in 97 seconds, beating the projected Over/Under by 105 seconds.
While bookmakers offer many side bets for the Super Bowl, many bettors are probably wondering if they will bet on the national anthem.
Unfortunately, you probably can’t bet on how long the national anthem will last on legal sports betting sites in the United States, in the same way you can’t bet on ads or the halftime show. BetMGM Sportsbook told Forbes Betting that we probably won’t be offering it in any state in 2024.
One explanation is that the anthem does not affect the final results of the game, which automatically disqualifies it as a legal betting market in many states.
Another explanation is that the exhibition is rehearsed in advance, which can lead to some problems. In 2021, the practice session was recorded and posted online, giving the audience an idea of how long the exhibition would last.
In order for a bet to be fair to both punters and sportsArray, the final results cannot be known in advance. This is not the case with the national anthem, which is why gambling regulators ban it.
If you live in the United States, no legal and regulated online sports sites will accept independent bets on the national anthem.
The exception is if a bookmaker links you to gambling, for example, by offering a bet on the length of the national anthem that will exceed the longest direction of the game. DraftKings Sportsbook introduced a bet like this a few years ago.
If the bookmakers don’t offer that market, you can still place friendly bets on the song with your friends or family in person.
For example, you can bet on the length of the anthem and time it yourself. You can set it up as an Over/Under bet or use a golf-style format where the user who comes closest to the right time wins.
You can also bet that the singer will miss a word or how long they will utter words like “brave” and “free. “
As you can see, there are many unofficial tactics for betting on the national anthem at a party. You just can’t do it on your favorite NFL site.
McEntire’s standout performance on the Star-Spangled Banner came in 1997, when he sang it before Game 3 of the World Series and capped it in 84 seconds.
Her first stage performance was in 1971 at the national rodeo final, where she was even faster and needed only 70 seconds to complete the 312-word ballad.
The most recent clip of her performing a song as the national anthem in 2017, when it took her about 80 seconds to complete her performance.
While the so-called “Queen of Country” has sung the national anthem in past performances, the Super Bowl tends to be the place where singers take their time to bask in the spotlight.
According to a 2022 report by the Los Angeles Times, the average length of the Super Bowl anthem is 118 seconds. Billy Joel recorded the shortest anthem in the last 15 years (90 seconds; Super Bowl XLI), while Alicia Keys has the longest (155 seconds; Super Bowl XLVII).
Photo via James Black/Icon Sportswire Getty Images
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