While the Patriots lost their shot at history and lost their claim to dynasty status, sportsbooks lost their shirt. It wasn’t quite as bad as Black Sunday (the Cowboys beat the Steelers 35-31 in Super Bowl XIII where the line moved from -3.5 to -4.5, resulting in losses for the books at both numbers and seeing a ‘push’ at -4), but it was the worst beating in two decades.

Online sportsbooks such as SportsBetting.com and others had lots of bettors on the Giants at +12 and also brisk action on the Giants to win (at attractive +350 odds on the Super Bowl moneyline). The result was a bloodbath and sportsbooks lost big on Super Bowl XLII.

Las Vegas sportsbooks saw heavy action on the underdog Giants and the UNDER with Las Vegas Hilton racebook boss Jay Kornegay describing the worst-case scenario come true.

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“It was like watching a train wreck,” said Kornegay after the Giants prevailed 17-14 over the Giants victory as a 12-point underdog. “It’s not like the books made a mistake. We thought the odds were in our favor with New England.”

Even some of the silly Super Bowl propositions fell predictably and cost the books money. The coin toss went to the Giants, the 11th straight time the NFC team has won the Super Bowl coin toss.

Online sportsbooks also paid out big on Super Bowl prop bets such as the outcome of the first scoring play of the game (where a Giants field goal was a +360 moneyline win).

And what about betting on Super Bowl XLIII? Well, odds are already up and the G-Men are 12/1 longshots to repeat their Super Bowl XLII upset. The Patriots are 5/2 favorites to get back to the big game and finish properly this time.

The Chargers and Colts, who stack up as the toughest AFC competition for Tom Brady, are both 8/1.