How To Set Up Your Super Bowl Betting Pool Las-Vegas-Style

Everyone knows how to play football squares. For this Super Bowl party staple, you draw a grid with 100 squares on it, with one team on each row. Your guests place their initials in a square, at the cost of $1 apiece. If a quarter ends with a score ending in your corresponding number, you win a percentage of the pool. Almost every football viewing party has some variation on this betting game, and though it can be fun, it lacks an excitement that should be very present for the Super Bowl.

If you want to shake up your Super Bowl party this year, try setting up a betting pool in the spirit of Las Vegas sports books.

To turn your Super Bowl party into a Vegas-ready affair, embrace future betting, allowing you to place bets on a variety of different outcomes. This sort of casino betting (in relation to football) typically allows you to bet on which team will win the Super Bowl far in advance of the two final teams actually being named.

However, certain Vegas sports books will allow you to bet on various things, such as Super Bowl MVP, who will score the most points, or who will have the most fumbles. Incorporate this into your party by allowing people to place bets on these things (and more).

To keep things friendly (and to avoid running an illegal gambling ring), have all of your guests put money into smaller pools. Have a pool where guests vote on MVP, coin toss winners, the number of Lady Gaga's outfit changes during the halftime show, etc. After each of these events takes place, whoever guesses correctly can take home the pot. If nobody wins, everyone gets their money back.

With this, of course, you should give your Super Bowl party a Las Vegas casino theme, complete with card games, felt-covered tables, and high-roller-worthy cocktails.