Thaindian News

By Madhuri Dey
Jan 24, (THAINDIAN NEWS) When the Pittsburgh Steelers face-off against the Green Bay Packers in the Super Bowl 2011 championship slated to take place early next month, the expectations of the fans from both the teams can be best described as skyrocketing. Although followers of both the teams are surely going to keep their fingers crossed, desperately hoping that their favorite team wins the much-coveted title, for the Las Vegas based oddsmakers, Green Bay Packers are the frontrunners to win the prestigious championship.

As per the Las Vegas oddsmakers, the Green Bay Packers are favored over their Super Bowl opponents by 2 1/2 points to emerge victorious in the championship. The difference in the points between the two teams vying for the title, is the narrowest spread for the Super Bowl championship in the last 27 years. The last championship game which had a point spread for less than three points was the 1983 Super Bowl season in which the Washington Redskins clashed against the Oakland Raiders and the former were 2 1/2-point favorites over their opponents although they ended up losing the championship by 38-9. Andrew Patterson, a Las Vegas based oddsmakers explained that the Green Bay Packers have been considered to be a hot team for the past few weeks and the fact that Packers are being favored over the Steelers is just a continuation of it.

The point spread is often considered to be the predictor of the Super Bowl champions as it has a success rate of 73 per cent given the fact that the favorite teams of the Las Vegas oddsmakers have emerged triumphant in 32 of the 44 Super Bowls.