This is one of our favorite Super Bowl prop bets to talk about because it has absolutely nothing to do with football and everything to do with a cooler full of sports drink getting dumped on a coach’s head.
If you have never bet on the Gatorade color before, here is how it works and why millions of people get in on it every February.
What is the Gatorade bath?
At the end of every Super Bowl the players on the winning team grab the big Gatorade cooler from the sideline and dump it over their head coach.
It has been a tradition in the NFL for decades and at some point the sportsbooks looked at it and said yeah we can take bets on that. Specifically they take bets on what color the Gatorade will be when it gets poured.
That is literally the entire bet. You pick a color and if the liquid that comes out of that cooler matches your pick you win.
It is the ultimate fun prop bet because no amount of football knowledge is going to help you. Nobody knows what color is in the cooler until it gets dumped.
What colors can you bet on?
The options vary slightly between sportsbooks but you will typically see orange, blue, yellow, clear or water, red, green, and purple.
Some books also list pink as a separate option. Orange and blue tend to be among the most common results historically which is why they usually have shorter odds compared to something like purple or green which have come up less often.
The odds on each color usually sit somewhere between +200 and +1000 depending on the book and how much money has come in on each option.
Clear or water is one that a lot of people forget about but it has come up a few times over the years and usually pays pretty well when it does.
Can you actually handicap this bet?
Sort of. Some bettors try to figure out which team is more likely to win the Super Bowl and then research what Gatorade flavors that team keeps on their sideline during the regular season.
There are people who actually go through TV footage and sideline photos from the conference championship game to see what color Gatorade was on the bench.
Whether that level of research actually gives you an edge on a prop bet that pays +300 is debatable but it is part of what makes Super Bowl prop betting fun.
The other factor is that Gatorade themselves sometimes have a say in what flavors are available on the sideline.
They are a major NFL sponsor and the Super Bowl is massive exposure for them so there is always speculation about whether they stock certain colors over others for branding purposes.
When do you find out the result?
The Gatorade bath usually happens right after the final whistle or in the closing seconds when the outcome is decided. The broadcast cameras almost always catch it so you can watch it live.
Every now and then the camera misses it or the angle makes it hard to tell the exact color which leads to some entertaining arguments on social media while everyone waits for the sportsbooks to grade the bet.
There have also been a couple of years where the bath was a mix of two colors or looked different depending on the camera angle.
The sportsbooks have rules for how they handle those situations so it is worth reading the fine print before you place the bet. Most books go by the predominant color as determined by video review.
A fun bet for Super Bowl parties
The Gatorade color bet is probably the single best prop bet for people who do not normally bet on sports.
You do not need to know anything about football, the odds are decent, and everyone at the Super Bowl party can get involved with a pick.
It usually costs a few bucks and gives the whole room something extra to watch for in those final minutes of the game.
