Betting on Pepsi, Bud or Charmin

http://money.cnn.com/2004/01/27/news/companies/superbowl_ad_bets/

Online betting site starts taking bets on which of the Super Bowl ads will win popularity vote.
By Chris Isidore , CNN/Money Senior Writer

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) – Many viewers of this weekend’s Super Bowl tune in for the commercials as much as the game itself. Now they can join fans of the game and place bets on those ads.

The online betting service BetonSports.com is setting odds and taking bets as to which ads will win the online poll conducted by USA Today following Sunday’s game.

The favorite, at 5-to-6 odds is soft drink brand Pepsi, which means that if you bet $60, you can win $50 more. A minimum bet on the ads is $10. The chance of winning with a bet on Pepsi is helped by the fact that the company is airing multiple commercials. If any of them wins the poll, a Pepsi bettor will win.

“It’s like handicapping a horse race,” said David Carruthers, CEO of BetonSports.com, which bills itself as the world’s largest online gambling site. “We look at pedigree of the brand, the quality of the trainer, which would be the ad agency, then look at the course and distance, which in this case means how many ads are going to run.”

Brewer Anheuser-Busch is next with 6-to-5 odds. In all the site lists odds on 21 of the Super Bowl advertisers, and has another choice for all other advertisers, which includes half-time sponsor America Online, Pizza Hut, Visa, most of the movie ads, along with the White House’s anti-drug ad. That combined betting choice, which pays if any of these ads wins, has 20 to one odds.

Among the long shots is the first Super Bowl ad from consumer products firm Procter & Gamble, which is advertising its Charmin toilet paper ad. BetonSports puts its odds at 200 to 1. A company spokeswoman said the company isn’t necessarily surprised by the long odds.

“We would love to be the most popular. But when we’re competing with such long-time advertisers as Anheuser-Buschs and Pepsi, we have to be realistic,” said Melissa Hale. “We hope we come out a happy medium (in rankings).”

Other long-shots include ads from major drugmakers and office supply store Staples, which has 300 to 1 odds. Two public service spots, an anti-smoking ads from Philip Morris and the American Legacy Foundation, have 500 to 1 odds, as does an ad from Walt Disney Co’s Buena Vista Pictures.

Carruthers said he expects gambling on the ads to be in the low tens of thousands of dollars. The average of such non-traditional bets, known as proposition bets, should be $23. Other proposition bets include which player will win the MVP and who will score the first touchdown. He expects the total wagered on the game by the average BetonSports customer to be $111.

One other ad-related item that BetonSports is taking wagers on is the winner of the Lingerie Bowl, the pay-per-view half-time show featuring seven-on-seven football between lingerie models. Each team has 5-to-6 odds.

Carruthers said the proposition bets are the fastest growing segment of online gaming. In addition to the Super Bowl ads, the site was taking bets on who would get Oscar nominations and who would win the New Hampshire primary. He said that segment of the online betting market is making the greatest inroads with female betters as well as younger betters.

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