LAS VEGAS (AP) — As Chicago roared through the 1985 NFL season, the Bears bullied opponents with the innovative “46 defense.”
Sports betting at that time was anything but innovative.
A point spread, money line and total. That was about it. Proposition bets were around, but not a central part of sports wagering.
Then Art Manteris at Caesars Palace had an idea. The Bears were identified by their defense, and one of their tackles, William “Refrigerator” Perry, had created national buzz by lining up at fullback and scoring touchdowns on goal-line plays. So Manteris came up with a separate bet on whether the 340-pound Perry would score a touchdown in the Super Bowl against the New England Patriots.
“It was the biggest thing that ever happened to the prop bet because it made everybody say, ‘What the hell’s going on?'” said longtime oddsmaker Jimmy Vaccaro, who now works for South Point in Las Vegas.
Thus a wagering craze began to take hold, expanding into a monster during the leadup to the Super Bowl and moving on to other sports, such as the NCAA Tournament. The women's Final Four is Friday and the men play on Saturday, and there is no shortage of possibilities in markets where prop betting is legal on college sports.
At BetMGM Sportsbook, for example, Duke's Cooper Flagg is a +105 favorite to be named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. UConn's Paige Bueckers is the -150 favorite on the women's side.
DraftKings Sportsbook offers odds such as whether there will be at least two buzzer-beaters on the men's side. That's +900 for someone willing to take a flyer. Someone could bet at +25000 that there will be at least a 25-point comeback on the women's side.
“It’s a game within a game, or several games within a game,” famed former oddsmaker Roxy Roxborough wrote in an email. “So, it allows bettors to have more action on the games. That’s fundamental.”
That was the thinking at Imperial Palace in the 1990s at a time when the Super Bowl was anything by super. The NFC dominated the AFC, winning 13 in a row with many games decided either by halftime or shortly afterward.
Sportsbook director Jay Kornegay and his team wanted to find a way to keep gamblers engaged even if the games became one-sided. Prop betting was that way.
“It was just to entertain everyone,” said Kornegay, who retired in November. “They became so popular that they became a revenue stream as well. So we thought, the more propositions we had, it would take some of that weight off the Super Bowl game itself because Super Bowl Sunday was a do-or-die situation for our operators back then. You won the game or lost the game.”
Now sportsbooks try to see if they can top each other during every Super Bowl — and other major sporting events.
Who can get more creative? Who can attract the most attention?
There also are concerns about prop betting, especially when it comes to wagering on college sports. Some states don't allow such wagers, and more than half of U.S. adults in a recent poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research were against legalized professional betting on collegiate contests.
“Bookmakers will have to get pretty particular about props from this day forward because they’re under a lot of fire, especially in college sports,” Roxborough wrote. “Some states will likely restrict props, especially in college sports. However, the new bookmakers constantly push the limits on what they can and cannot do. I expect it to be a back-and-forth tussle with the regulators.”
Vaccaro remembered that 1985 Bears team and the Super Bowl prop that the rest of the Las Vegas Strip was forced to copy.
He opened the odds at about 40-1 at Golden Nugget and had to drop it to 10-1 when money poured in on the Fridge to score.
Which he did.
“I was glad he did, even though we took a beating on that game,” Vaccaro said. “It proved it was a nice prop.”
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Duke forward Cooper Flagg is interviewed in the locker room during media day at the Final Four of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Thursday, April 3, 2025, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson )
FILE - Former Chicago Bears player William Perry arrives during the first half of an NFL football game between the Bears and the Detroit Lions, Sunday, Jan. 3, 2016, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh,File)
FILE - Chicago Bears William "The Refridgerator" Perry holds the ball to celebrate his touchdown from the Dallas one-yard line on Sunday, August 3, 1986 in the American Bowl at Wembley Stadium London. (AP Photo/Ron Heflin,File)
President Donald Trump remained defiant Monday as global markets continued plunging after his tariff announcement last week.
Trump has insisted his tariffs are necessary to rebalance global trade and rebuild domestic manufacturing. He's singled out China as “the biggest abuser of them all” and criticized Beijing for increasing its own tariffs in retaliation.
Here's the latest:
The stock market briefly spiked on a report that Kevin Hassett, a top White House economic adviser, said the president was considering a 90-day pause on tariffs.
The supposed remark from Hassett circulated on social media, but no one could pinpoint where it came from even as the market flashed from red to green.
Hassett had spoken to Fox News earlier in the morning, when he was asked about a potential pause. However, he was noncommittal.
“I think the president is going to decide what the president is going to decide,” he said.
▶ Read more updates on the financial markets
Vance’s mother, Beverly Aikins’ on Friday received a 10-year sobriety medallion in the Roosevelt Room at a ceremony with friends and family.
Vance described Aikins’ past drug addiction in his bestselling book “Hillbilly Elegy.”
The cases are likely headed to a Supreme Court showdown on the president’s power over independent agencies.
A divided U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued the ruling in the lawsuits separately brought by Merit Systems Protection Board member Cathy Harris and National Labor Relations Board member Gwynne Wilcox.
The ruling reverses, at least for now, a judgement from a three-judge panel from the same appellate court.
▶ Read more about Trump and the board members
The dispute over tariffs has caused some fracturing within Trump’s political coalition.
Hedge fund manager Bill Ackman said the president was “launching a global economic war against the whole world at once” and urged him to “call a time out.”
“We are heading for a self-induced, economic nuclear winter,” he wrote on X on Sunday.
Top White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett told Fox News on Monday morning that Ackman should “ease off the rhetoric a little bit.”
Hassett said critics were exaggerating the impact of trade disputes and talk of an “economic nuclear winter” was “completely irresponsible rhetoric.”
The president showed no interest in changing course despite turmoil in global markets.
He said other countries had been “taking advantage of the Good OL’ USA” on international trade.
“Our past ‘leaders’ are to blame for allowing this, and so much else, to happen to our Country,” he wrote on Truth Social. “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Trump criticized China for increasing its own tariffs and “not acknowledging my warning for abusing countries not to retaliate.”
On a day when stock markets around the world dropped precipitously, Alabama Republican Party Chairman John Wahl led a celebration of the president whose global tariffs sparked the sell-off.
With no mention of the Wall Street roller coaster and global economic uncertainty, Wahl declared his state GOP’s “Trump Victory Dinner” — and the broader national moment — a triumph. And for anyone who rejects Trump, his agenda and the “America First” army that backs it all, Wahl had an offer: “The Alabama Republican Party will buy them a plane ticket to any country in the world they want to go to.”
Wahl’s audience — an assembly of lobbyists and donors, state lawmakers, local party officials and grassroots activists — laughed, applauded and sometimes roared throughout last week’s gala in downtown Birmingham.
Yet beyond the cheerleading, there were signs of a more cautious optimism and some worried whispers over Trump’s sweeping tariffs, the particulars of his deportation policy and the aggressive slashing by his Department of Government Efficiency.
▶ Read more about Trump’s support in Alabama
This morning, at 11 a.m., World Series Champions, the Los Angeles Dodgers, will visit the White House and meet the president. Later, at 1 p.m., Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit the White House and meet with Trump. At 2 p.m., Netanyahu and Trump will participate in a Bilateral Meeting in the Oval Office. At 2:30 p.m., they will hold a joint news conference.
Trump said Sunday that he won’t back down on his sweeping tariffs on imports from most of the world unless countries even out their trade with the U.S.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said he didn’t want global markets to fall, but also that he wasn’t concerned about the massive sell-off either, adding, “sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something.”
His comments came as global financial markets appeared on track to continue sharp declines once trading resumes Monday, and after Trump’s aides sought to soothe market concerns by saying more than 50 nations had reached out about launching negotiations to lift the tariffs.
The higher rates are set to be collected beginning Wednesday. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said unfair trade practices are not “the kind of thing you can negotiate away in days or weeks.” The United States, he said, must see “what the countries offer and whether it’s believable.”
▶ Read more about the global impact of Trump’s tariffs
Pedestrian are reflected on a brokerage house's window as an electronic board displays shares trading index, in Beijing, Monday, April 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
Shipping containers are stored at Bensenville intermodal terminal in Franklin Park, Ill., Sunday, April 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
President Donald Trump arrives at the White House on Marine One, Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
