Super Bowl Kickoff Time 2013: Interesting Facts You Should Know About Coin Toss

Super Bowl Sunday isn’t just about a football game. It’s a day of getting together with friends and celebrating another season of NFL football going into the books.

Super Bowl XLVII, the 2013 edition, will have some interesting things riding on its coin toss. Who holds the overall record for coin toss wins? Does it have any effect on the outcome of the actual game? And, of course, will it be heads or tails?

Where: Mercedes-Benz Superdome, New Orleans, La.

Kickoff: Sunday, Feb. 3 at 6:30 p.m. ET

Watch: CBS

Live Stream: CBSSports.com

Halftime Show: Beyonce

 

Papa John’s Sponsors Coin Toss

If you like free pizza, and are partial to Papa John’s pies, you might want to listen up. The pizza company is again offering a chance for its loyal customers to benefit from the biggest coin toss in sports.

Last year the company offered a collective reward for its fans correctly guessing the coin toss of Super Bowl XLVII. The popular vote settled on heads, and Papa Rewards program members cashed in with a free large pizza as a result.

This year will be different, though. Instead of the collectivism of last year’s toss, Papa Johns is giving individual fans the chance to vote and benefit with a free pie if they personally pick the right result.

It’s a no-lose situation, unless your pick is wrong, of course.

Past Results

People will tirelessly argue about the probability of a coin toss until they’re blue in the face. The truth is, it’s as close to 50/50 odds as there is, but isn’t exact.

In the case of the Super Bowl it has been, up until now.

There has been an equal number of heads results (23) as there has been for tails results (23). There have also been four straight tails results and there has never been a fifth straight occurrence of either one. That makes this year’s toss even harder to predict.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at a popular proposition bet for the toss. The correlation of the coin toss winner to the eventual winner of the game is a debatable occurrence. Does it hold any weight?

It hasn’t been as close to the odds of the heads of tails toss, but it sure is close. In the 46 previous Super Bowl coin tosses, only 22 of the toss winners have went on to hoist the Lombardi Trophy. That’s a 22-24 record for those lacking in mathematical prowess.

*Super Bowl coin toss results obtained via OddsShark