The Raiders haven't had a winning season since 2002, but that's not stopping their fans from betting some serious money on Oakland to win Super Bowl 50.
According to the William Hill Sportsbook in Nevada, the Raiders are tied with the Cowboys as the fourth-most popular pick to win Super Bowl 50. You can see below the most popular picks to win the Super Bowl for the upcoming NFL season (via ESPN's Darren Rovell).
The chart basically means that for every 100 bets taken, five of them are on the Raiders to win the Super Bowl.
The Packers winning the Super Bowl? Definitely possible.
The Seahawks? I could see it.
The Raiders? Complete craziness.
Oakland could be better this year, but I have a hard time see them going from 3-13 in 2014 to Super Bowl winner in 2015.
Now, the chart above only reflects the amount of bets placed, not the amount of money placed on each bet. Theoretically, a team could rank high on the chart above if someone went in and placed a bunch of one dollar bets on them to win the Super Bowl.
That's not what happened with the Raiders though. Oakland also ranked high when it comes to the amount of money being wagered.
William Hill will not be cheering for the Seahawks to win it all this year.
Back to the Raiders though.
The chart above basically explains why the house always wins: From a dollars standpoint, William Hill has taken as many bets on the Raiders to win Super Bowl 50 as they have on the defending Super Bowl champion Patriots -- and they've taken in more money on Raiders bets than they have the Steelers or Cardinals, two teams that went to the playoffs last season.
So can the Raiders pull off the biggest NFL miracle of all-time and win a Super Bowl in their backyard? Oddsmakers don't seem to think so.
At Bovada, Oakland is a 66-1 longshot to win the Super Bowl. Every other team above them on either chart is 12-1 odds or better to win the Super Bowl, except for the Ravens, who are 25-1.
Super Bowl 50 will be played on Feb. 7, 2016 in the Bay Area and will be televised by CBS.
