Super Bowl Prop Bets: Travis Kelce, Refrigerator Perry and the $250K Loss That Birthed a Phenomenon

Patrick Everson Sports Betting Expert

4 minute read

Super Bowl prop bets are now all the rage. Sportsbooks far and wide in the U.S. offer hundreds of props that create literally thousands of betting options on the Big Game.

But it all began almost 40 years ago. The juggernaut Chicago Bears were 10-point favorites against the New England Patriots in the final game of the 1985-86 season. Oddsmakers knew they had to do something to make the Super Bowl XX matchup more appealing to the betting masses.

Enter Art Manteris and what's widely acknowledged as the launching pad for Super Bowl prop betting.

Super Bowl Prop Bets

Opening the Refrigerator Door

Manteris recently retired after a run of more than 35 years behind Las Vegas sportsbook counters. Back in January 1986, he was sportsbook manager at Caesars Palace.

Manteris watched as the Chicago Bears steamrolled not only through a 15-1 regular season, but their first two playoff games. The Bears threw two postseason shutouts, 21-0 against the New York Giants and 24-0 against the Los Angeles Rams.

Chicago had everything going for it. A confident/cocky quarterback in Jim McMahon, an all-timer at running back in Walter Payton, an impenetrable defense. Oh, and a popular rookie defensive lineman: William "Refrigerator" Perry, whom coach Mike Ditka had utilized in the offensive backfield in goal-line situations.

Perry had two touchdown runs and a TD catch during the regular season. A lightbulb went off in Manteris' head: Why not put up a market allowing customers to bet on whether The Fridge would score a TD in the Super Bowl?

"We put up that prop at Caesars," Manteris recalled by text this week, while traveling in Europe.

Bettors ate it up, and though Manteris and his peers have a bit of a foggy memory on odds, Perry scoring was believed to be at least +2000.

"The Fridge hadn't been in the backfield for several weeks. Coach Ditka said publicly that Perry would never carry the ball again," Manteris recalled. "Then he scores in the third quarter, and Walter Payton did not score."

Perry's TD run gave Chicago a massive 44-3 lead over New England, and the Bears went on to win 46-10. So Manteris' concern about the potential for a blowout – creating the need for other ways to attract bettors – proved absolutely correct.

Blowing a Quarter Mil

Perry's touchdown was a huge windfall for bettors, and a significant loss for Caesars, particularly in 1986 dollars. But there was a silver lining.

"We got killed on it, but the company loved the national attention," Manteris said. "The chairman of Caesars World, Henry Gluck, called me a couple days later to congratulate me. I thought he was calling to bitch at me for blowing a quarter mil on a stupid prop.

"That's when I realized the potential power of sports gambling marketing."

In 2024, on the eve of Super Bowl LVIII between the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs, that power is greater than ever. Caesars Sports and myriad other operators have massive Super Bowl prop menus. Touchdown scorer props are of course hugely popular, and the prop menu as a whole draws more money than the game itself at some sportsbooks.

"You're not really in the Super Bowl environment until you start betting these props," said Jay Kornegay, who runs The SuperBook as vice president of race and sports for Westgate.

Connecting the Dots

Ken Fuchs was a 15-year-old Chicago Bears fan when Perry converted the prop heard 'round the world. So sports betting wasn't yet on his radar, though he certainly recalls Perry's touchdown run. But Fuchs is now head of sports for Caesars Entertainment and the COO of Caesars Digital.

So there's a fairly straight line from Art Manteris posting the Fridge prop in the mid-1980s to what Caesars Sports is doing in the present day.

"It speaks to the iconic aspect of Caesars Sportsbook and our role in this industry, dating way back," Fuchs said, while reminding that there was another key prop on that Super Bowl XX menu. "No one talks about all those people who bet Walter Payton to score. Those are the real losers from that [Perry] prop."

Now, bettors have the ability to bet on an abundance of players to not only score, but to do just about anything else that one can deduce from a boxscore. and then some.

"As you flash forward in the industry, I think you just have a culture that loves star players. You have a culture that loves fantasy sports. They know their players, they know their player data, they know their statistics," Fuchs said. "I think that interest level and that knowledge is really translating into a market that's different than anywhere else in the world, in terms of prop betting players, prop betting on the game, all the different derivatives that you can look at.

"You still see a tremendous amount of interest in who's gonna win the game and the Over/Under. Those markets, they'll stay forever and always be popular," Fuchs said. "But to give you an example [of props' impact], I think today, as we go into the weekend, Travis Kelce to score a touchdown has more bets than either the 49ers spread or moneyline market."

Actually, Kelce Anytime TD has more tickets than 49ers spread and moneyline combined at Caesars.

"Which is incredible when you think about it," Fuchs said. "There might be a little third-party influence in that."

From Perry to Kelce

So what is that little third-party influence? That would be one Taylor Swift.

Perry was Caesars' big liability in Super Bowl XX. For Super Bowl LVIII, there's no doubt it's Kelce. Whether it's MVP or TD scorer markets or receptions or yards, etc., Kelce is wildly popular – aided by his massively famous girlfriend.

"If Kelce has a big game, definitely a lot of people will leave Caesars Palace really happy or maybe go get a nice dinner or something afterwards. And it won't be us," Fuchs said with a laugh.

Patrick Everson

Patrick Everson is a senior reporter for VegasInsider. Based in Las Vegas since 1994, he's worked in the sports betting journalism/content space for more than a decade. He's most known for his deep roster of contacts behind sportsbook counters, providing readers and viewers with the ins-and-outs of how events are being bet. He's also a thought leader in the sports betting space, often appearing on or moderating panels at national conferences. More from Patrick Everson