The outcome of the coin toss has been a Super Bowl betting staple for decades and one of its most highly-wagered as well.
For a recent Super Bowl, one Las Vegas oddsmaker reported taking more bets on the coin flip than on any other prop wager. The amount of money placed on the flip is only expected to increase as more states legalize sports gambling.
A wager on the coin flip is ideal for a casual sports bettor who wants a little Super Bowl action but doesn’t feel like sweating out the game itself or researching things like gambling trends and line movements (although you can look at past coin toss results if you’d like).
It’s clearly a 50-50 prop, with winning wagers on both heads and tails usually paying out the same odds—typically around -105 for each side.
The last digit in the odds here represents the oddsmaker vigorish. You want to find odds that are as close to +100 as possible, though there is little variation among sportsbooks regarding coin toss betting. Some books may give you +100 odds to entice you to register an account. They are willing to forgo charging a rake on the coin toss.
Beyond a simple “heads or tails” wager, many NFL betting sites allow for plays on whether the player who calls heads or tails calls it correctly, whether the team that wins the coin toss will also win the game, and whether the team that wins the toss will receive the opening kickoff or defer to the second half.
All of these are pure gambles with no skill involved.
Super Bowl Coin Toss Odds 2024
Here are the Super Bowl 58 coin toss odds at DraftKings Sportsbook. You can wager on the outcome of the toss as well as which team will win.
Odds vary by sportsbook and subject to change.
Coin Toss Outcome:
- Heads: +100
- Tails: +100
Team To Win the Coin Toss:
- Kansas City Chiefs: +100
- San Francisco 49ers: +100
Who Won The Coin Toss In 2024 Super Bowl?
The Kansas City Chiefs called the coin toss in Super Bowl 58. They called heads and won.
The Chiefs deferred and opted to kick off, giving the 49ers the ball to start the game.
This continues the recent trend of heads at the Big Game. Five of the last seven Super Bowl coin tosses have been heads.
Super Bowl Coin Toss History Since 2000
- 2024: San Francisco 49ers vs. Kansas City Chiefs (Heads)
- 2023: Philadelphia Eagles vs. Kansas City Chiefs (Tails)
- 2022: LA Rams vs. Cincinnati Bengals (Heads)
- 2021: Kansas City Chiefs vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Heads)
- 2020: Kansas City Chiefs vs. San Francisco 49ers (Tails)
- 2019: New England Patriots vs. LA Rams (Heads)
- 2018: New England Patriots vs. Philadelphia Eagles (Heads)
- 2017: Atlanta Falcons vs. New England Patriots (Tails)
- 2016: Carolina Panthers vs. Denver Broncos (Tails)
- 2015: Seattle Seahawks vs. New England Patriots (Tails)
- 2014: Seattle Seahawks vs. Denver Broncos (Tails)
- 2013: Baltimore Ravens vs. San Francisco 49ers (Heads)
- 2012: New England Patriots vs. NY Giants (Heads)
- 2011: Green Bay Packers vs. Pittsburgh Steelers (Heads)
- 2010: New Orleans Saints vs. Indianapolis Colts (Heads)
- 2009: Arizona Cardinals vs. Pittsburgh Steelers (Heads)
- 2008: NY Giants vs. New England Patriots (Tails)
- 2007: Chicago Bears vs. Indianapolis Colts (Heads)
- 2006: Seattle Seahawks vs. Pittsburgh Steelers (Tails)
- 2005: Philadelphia Eagles vs. New England Patriots (Tails)
- 2004: Carolina Panthers vs. New England Patriots (Tails)
- 2003: Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Oakland Raiders (Tails)
- 2002: St. Louis Rams vs. New England Patriots (Heads)
- 2001: NY Giants vs. Baltimore Ravens (Tails)
- 2000: St. Louis Rams vs. Tennessee Titans (Tails)
Coin Toss Time
The Super Bowl coin toss ceremony occurs about three minutes before the start of the game. The game begins at 6:30 p.m. ET on Super Bowl Sunday.
You can bet on the coin toss at any time before it occurs. That includes days before the game starts, but most people who bet on the coin toss submit their wagers on the day of the game.
Who Chooses The Coin Toss?
The team that calls the Super Bowl coin toss alternates between conferences every year. The AFC team (Kansas City) called the coin toss in 2024, so the NFC team will call it in 2025.
It doesn’t matter who chooses the coin toss for the Super Bowl when it comes to gambling. Some bettors may be superstitious, but that isn’t a betting strategy.
Can I Bet On The Super Bowl Coin Toss?
The general answer is yes, but it depends on where you live.
First, you must be physically present in a state that allows sports betting.
Secondly, you must be in a state that specifically allows bets on the coin toss.
Most regulated online sportsbooks will offer a wager on the coin toss if the state where they operate lets them post odds for the market.
Most States Allow Coin Toss Bets
The vast majority of sports betting states allow coin toss-related plays on mobile apps.
However, there are a few exceptions. For example, Colorado and Ohio bettors aren’t allowed to wager on the 2024 Super Bowl coin toss.
Colorado legalized sports wagering in 2020, yet its Catalog of Events and Wagers prohibits bettors from playing the Super Bowl coin toss, including such wagers in its extensive list of potential bets that have been rejected for approval.
Colorado Department of Revenue Communications Supervisor Suzanna Karrer explained in an email to Forbes Betting that the “Colorado statute does not allow for bets that are completely based on chance, hence we statutorily prohibit bets on the coin flip.”
No Coin Toss Betting In Ohio
The Buckeye State kicked off sports betting in early 2023, so the industry there is still relatively new.
When the United States Supreme Court struck down a federal law that prohibited most states from legalizing sports gambling in 2018, states were not only given the choice of whether to legalize sports gambling, but the ones that chose to allow it were also tasked with creating their own guidelines.
For the most part, Ohio’s sports wagering regulations align with other states. The legal age to place a bet in Ohio is 21, wagering on the outcomes of professional and college sporting events is allowed, and betting is allowed on online sports betting apps and in-person at casinos, stadiums, bars and restaurants, among other places.
Like the governing bodies that regulate sports gambling in other states, Ohio’s Casino Control Commission has a publicly available outline of approved wagers along with an outline of which kinds of wagers have not been approved. Listed among the types of unapproved wagers are “coin flips or other random determinations.”
In an email to Forbes, Ohio Casino Control Commission Director of Communications Jessica Franks wrote that “the Commission is charged with maintaining the integrity of sports gaming in Ohio – as such, the Commission will not approve wagers involving coin flips or other random determinations, or wagers on non-sporting events such as what color Gatorade will be dumped on a coach (because someone knows ahead of time).”
Ohio gamblers have hundreds of Super Bowl wagers at their disposal, but they’ll have to travel to one of the five bordering states that have also legalized sports wagering to place one of the game’s easiest and most popular bets.
Betting Regulations Change
Just because a state like Ohio doesn’t allow betting on the coin toss now doesn’t mean it won’t be possible in the future.
Iowa legalized sports gambling in May 2019, with the first sportsbook apps going live later that summer. The new betting rules in the Hawkeye State allowed Iowans to make most of the same wagers that had been approved in other states, with the interesting wrinkle of adding an expansive list of approved wagers on charity golf matches.
Yet it wasn’t until July 2022 that the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission added coin flips to its catalog of approved wagers, explaining in its revision to the state’s code that “the Commission considers coin tosses to be sports-related events.”
Each state’s sports gambling wagers will evolve over time. As Jessica Franks from Ohio Casino Control Commission explained in her email to Forbes, “There is a process by which wagers and/or events can be added to or removed from the catalog.”
Like the coin flip itself, the eventual addition of one of the Super Bowl’s most popular wagers seems like it’s worth betting on.
