Super Bowl 46 second biggest handle by The Gaming Today’s, Mark Mayer

Looking back at Super Bowl XLVI, Las Vegas books underestimated both the Giants as an underdog and the heavy volume of betting the New York-New England rivalry would bring to Nevada.

The Nevada Gaming Commission released the final tally Monday night, which showed $93.89 million wagered at 184 sports books, resulting in a net profit of $5.06 million.

It’s the largest Super Bowl handle since 2006, when Super Bowl XL between the Seattle Seahawks and Pittsburgh Steelers set a record with $94.5 million wagered. The handle far surpassed last year’s Super Bowl between the Green Bay Packers and Steelers, which saw $87.5 million wagered.

Predictions from several Las Vegas betting insiders that the Giants-Patriots game would not approach last year’s figures were way off. Call it the power of the New York bettor, which drove the line from 3 to 2½ and eventually 2 at Wynn prior to kickoff.

Nevada sports books have made a profit on the Super Bowl in 20 of the past 22 years, so the underestimation worked to their benefit largely due to the proposition wagers.

The Giants victory over New England in 2008 was the last time Nevada books took a loss on Super Bowl wagers.

The NGC reported that approximately 52 percent of the bets were on the Giants. Nevada’s sports books were big winners on the over/under and on proposition bets, according to RJ Bell, the founder of Las Vegas-based handicapping information website Pregame.com.

At www.aasiwins.com, we have the Gaming Today’s Mark Mayer contributing free NFL articles and winners.