Betting on sport has always been popular, even when illegal, but after the last disastrous Gambling Act it is time to treat the issue in a more mature waySuper Bowl XXIX in January 1995 between the San Francisco 49ers and the San Diego Chargers looked like a lopsided mismatch beforehand and the reality was even worse. From the moment the 49ers scored what was, at the time, the fastest opening touchdown in
Super Bowl history, it felt like the longest WWF bout in history, only without the round where they pretend the bad guy is winning.
The only thing that took anyone by surprise was the TV ratings. It was not the headline figure of 83.4m viewers which was impressive because Americans always switch on to the Super Bowl in their tens of millions. What was remarkable, though, was the number who were still watching the 49ers’ 49-26 win four hours later, when the outcome had been a foregone conclusion almost from the kick-off. The game, inevitably, was the top-rated programme of the week but so many people were still there at the end that the post-game show, a mixture of interviews, analysis and prize-giving, was No 2. It relegated Seinfeld to third.