May 13, 2020 First half bet: A wager that focused on the result of the first half in sports like basketball, soccer and football. The most popular first half betting odds are spread, moneyline and game total. Sportswagers and their vastly experienced team of handicappers provide FREE selections on all college and pro sports and other major wagering events each and every day of the year.

Pinnacle-3 +100 BET365 -3 -110SportsInteraction-3 -1125DIMES-3 -110Bookmaker-3 -110

Posted at 11:15 AM EST.

Super Bowl LV

Raymond James Stadium, Tampa, FL

Kansas City -3 +100 over TAMPA BAY

6:30 PM EST. And then there were two. This year's Super Bowl promises to be one of the higher scoring matchups with great quarterbacks and receivers and mostly average defenses for both franchises. What's not to love about the final game pitting Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, and Tyreek Hill against Tom Brady, Mike Evans, and Chris Godwin? The Chiefs are the team that usually falls behind and then mounts a comeback so thorough that it all seems like the filming of a movie. The Buccaneers are the 'never quite there' 7-9 team from 2019 that added the oldest quarterback in the world and made a last-minute buy on a former starting running back that was left on the side of the road right before the season kicked off. Darkhorse? The Buccaneers had 14-1 odds to win this Super Bowl as of last summer.

The Chiefs are becoming the new Patriots, ironically, only with the best offense and somehow accomplishing the one thing that eluded the Patriots - combining a dominant, elite team with a roster of highly likable players. It doesn't hurt that they arguably mix the best quarterback, wide receiver and tight end for an unstoppable effect.

This is the second meeting of these teams this season. The Chiefs won 27-24 at Tampa Bay in Week 12. The parallels to the playoff meeting against Brady and the Patriots in 2018 are easily overblown, but they denied Patrick Mahomes the chance to play in a Super Bowl in every year that he's played. The Patriots won 37-31 in overtime thanks mostly to a rushing effort that netted 154 yards and four touchdowns.

This is the first Super Bowl held in the home stadium for one of the contestants. And ironically, again, it happens in a COVID season where there will not be the same activities and attendance as in any other year. There will be about 25, 000 fans in attendance at Raymond James Stadium, with cutouts used to fill the other seats.

The Chiefs trailed 9-0 before scoring three touchdowns in the second quarter and rolled on past in their 38-24 win over the Bills in the Conference Round. The Chiefs haven't fallen as far behind in games as they did in the 2019 playoffs, but they did start slowly last week. The passing effort bounced back after lower efforts since Week 14 but the Chefs' rushing effort lagged the same as the rest of the season. The two-week wait for the Super Bowl will help the Chiefs get healthier but they were able to beat the Bills by two touchdowns with the pared-down roster.

What will be important is the loss of RT Mitchell Schwartz to a back injury and even more so, LT Eric Fisher who injured his Achilles last week. It is not a death knell by any means, but it is a negative facing the Buccaneers defense ranked No. 4 in sacks (48) during the regular season.

Let’s go back to that first meeting, a 27-24 K.C. win that looks so much closer than it actually was. It is highly notable that Mahomes posted a career-best passing yardage (462) and the same skill players are healthy for this one. The Chiefs were up 27-10 in the fourth quarter and were about to make it 34-10 when the Locker Room employees stepped in and changed the course of the fourth quarter. Without going into details, the Bucs scored two garbage TD’s to make the final score a three-point loss when it in fact should’ve been a four touchdown loss. The Bucs also lost 38-3 to the Saints. The point is, Tampa can get blown out while the Chiefs cannot. We made a much similar point about the Bradys when they were up in Lambeau Field two weeks ago. Luckily for the Bucs, the Packers are run by a bunch of idiots. Do you think that the Chiefs are going to let Tommy off the hook if he chucks up three interceptions like he did in Green Bay? Brady’s stat line in the NFC Championship was 20-of-36 for 280 yards, three touchdowns and three interceptions with one of those majors coming on a fourth down hail mary to end the first half where the Packers were caught napping. If Brady plays as he did up in Green Bay, the Chiefs are going to eat him alive. Even if he plays his best game of the season, it’s still asking a lot for the old man to keep up with the wunderkind.

If Brady has the edge over Mahomes in any area, it’s his pull with the Locker Room employees. Whether intentional or not, Tommy Boy gets the call just about every time. Again, look at that game against the Packers. The officials let the Buccaneers defenders ride the Packers' receivers like it was the Kentucky Derby without the acknowledgement of a foul, but when one of Brady’s boys had his undershirt tugged on an uncatchable ball, the flag came flying in from 40 yards away to seal the victory for the Bucs. It is impossible to know how this game will be officiated, which is one of the reasons why the NFL is so frustrating not just to wager on but watch as well. The game script goes something like this, kickoff, commercial, flag, flag, commercial, flag, commercial, flag. In the end, if all things are equal, the superior team, the superior coach, and the superior QB will emerge. Once the football is in the air to kick things off, all the intangibles are completely out of our control. We’ll just sit back and know that we’re going “with the best of it” by getting the Chiefs at a bargain.

Commercials are often the main draw of the big game for those that would typically never watch football. However, with Super Bowl parties set to be much more limited or even non-existent depending on your local restrictions, the pandemic looms large over this game as it has all season. Hell, even Budweiser decided to sit this one out. Hopefully, this break in tradition is just limited to one season, and we can all be elbow deep in the buffalo chicken dip when Super Bowl LVI kicks off in 2022. Stay safe out there and enjoy the game. Thanks for all the support this season. We truly appreciate you all. Go Chiefs.

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Our Pick

Kansas City -3 +100 (Risking 2 units - To Win: 2.00)

Sport Wager Sites

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Sports betting won with voters in most of Louisiana’s parishes on Election Day.

Voters in at least 52 of Louisiana’s 64 parishes agreed in Tuesday’s election to legalize sports wagering in their parishes, while voters in at least five other parishes refused to allow the gambling within their legal limits. The Associated Press deemed another seven parishes too close to immediately call.

The parishes that approved represent most of Louisiana’s population, including all of the major metro areas, in a state that already has a lottery, casinos, video poker and slot machines at racetracks.

But sports betting on live-action games is likely at least a year away because lawmakers still have to set the tax rates and regulations.

Sports betting opponents, such as pastors and the conservative Louisiana Family Forum, had a difficult time fighting the organized pro-wagering message of gambling companies that poured more than $2 million into a political action committee called Louisiana Wins.

The PAC pushed passage of the sports betting proposition through TV and digital ads and campaign mailers that said Louisiana could bring in millions of dollars from the wagering activity. The group noted Louisiana’s neighboring states of Arkansas and Mississippi allow some form of sports betting.

“The people of Louisiana have spoken. Louisiana was missing out on tax revenue from not having legal sports wagering, and now we will be able to raise revenue to support our state’s many needs,” Ryan Berni with Louisiana Wins said in a statement.

However, estimates of the taxes Louisiana could bring in from sports betting vary widely — and depend on how expansive lawmakers allow the wagering to be.

Parishes where voters refused to legalize sports betting include rural Catahoula, Franklin, LaSalle, West Carroll and Winn. In seven parishes, the decision remained unclear: Beauregard, Caldwell, Grant, Jackson, Richland, Sabine and Union.

Tuesday’s sport betting victory was even larger than a similar win two years ago, when residents of 47 parishes agreed to legalize fantasy sports competitions for online cash prizes.

Voter legalization in a parish is only the first step of a multistep process, however.

Determining which live action sports games will be allowed in the gambling, where the wagers can happen and how the activity will be taxed must be settled in a future legislative session. Lawmakers — who agreed in a two-thirds vote to let parishes decide whether to legalize sports betting — must create the licensing, regulation and tax framework before wagering begins.

In other statewide propositions beyond sports betting, voters backed five of the seven constitutional changes proposed, while overwhelmingly rejecting two amendments recommended by lawmakers.

Notably, more than 62% of voters agreed to rewrite the Louisiana Constitution to ensure it does not offer protections for abortion rights, a provision that would become relevant if the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide is overturned.

On the other amendments, voters:

—Approved Amendment 2 to change the way oil and gas wells are assessed for property taxes, allowing a well’s production to be included in determining the fair market value.

—Agreed to Amendment 3 to let lawmakers use the state’s “rainy day” fund to offset costs tied to federally declared disasters, like a hurricane.

—Rejected Amendment 4, a proposal pushed by conservative lawmakers that would have recalculated Louisiana’s cap on annual growth in government to make it harder for lawmakers to increase spending beyond certain limits.

—Refused Amendment 5, which would have let manufacturers and local government agencies negotiate financial deals to replace the property taxes these companies could owe for industrial expansion.

—Approved Amendment 6 to allow higher-income homeowners to qualify for a special freeze in their property tax assessments.

—Backed Amendment 7 to lock up Louisiana’s unclaimed property dollars in a trust fund that cannot be used to pay for state operating expenses.

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Follow Melinda Deslatte on Twitter at http://twitter.com/melindadeslatte. Find AP’s full election coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/election-2020.