This was something I used to be in the habit of doing, and then I was surprised to see that it is apparently a fairly common practice:
Placing a monetary bet against your favorite sports team winning is essentially a financial hedge for your mind; either you get the outcome you want (say, the Chiefs winning the Super Bowl, if you like Kansas City) or you get financial compensation for a Chiefs loss. And depending on how the bet is structured, you could even have your cake and eat it too - the Chiefs might win, but fail to cover their spread, but then you get the satisfaction of a Chiefs win ***and ***money won from the bet.
I think lots of people do it, but not for the reason you stated. In your mind, you either win the money or your team wins, so you win either way. I think most people bet on the team they think will win, regardless of who they want to win. You wouldn’t bet against your team if you thought they’d win, would you?
As a Chiefs fan, I actually have done this…I bet against the Chiefs in a particular game. When they won the game, I was happy for the victory, but I was mighty pissed at myself for betting against them.
But I’m not sure how a bet could be placed against them winning the Super Bowl this year. Does Vegas accept a bet like that? I suppose I could place a bet on each of the other 11 teams in the playoffs, but one of the longshots would have to win to make any money.
I’ve done that while filling out my March Madness bracket (though the one I doo is free). I put teams I like to lose so Either they win and I’m happy or they lose and I got a pick correct.
Sorry, i wrote that badly. What I meant was, if the Chiefs advance to the Super Bowl, and it’s now just between them and their NFC opponent, then at that point you can “buy insurance” by betting against the Chiefs.
It could backfire, though. If the Vikings are favored by 4 to beat the Chiefs, and you bet a thousand dollars on the Vikings, and Minnesota ends up winning by 3 points, then not only do your Chiefs lose but you also lose your money.
Stephen Hawking and Kip Thorne famously (at least, famously among physicists) made a bet as to whether black holes exist. Hawking was specifically doing so as an “insurance bet”, since if they didn’t, then a lot of his career was in vain. Thorne also had a lot of his career riding on black holes, but preferred to live dangerously.