Super Bowl XLIII

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Despite losing the Super Bowl this year New England have been put in as the BestPrice 18/5 favourites to make amends next February. Bet now

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The inaugural Super Bowl took place in 1967, although it would not be known as such for another two seasons. The original game came about when the champions of the National Football League (NFL) and American Football League met to decide the World Championship game as part of a merger agreement between the two leagues.

About the Super Bowl

The first game, which was known as the 'AFL-NFL World Championship' at the time, was played between Green Bay Packers and Kansas City Chiefs. The Packers led by legendary coach Vince Lombardi ran out 35-10 winners. The following year Green Bay repeated their success, this time against Oakland Raiders, 33-14.

The name Super Bowl was then adopted, named after a toy that the then commissioner's daughter was particularly fond of called a Super Ball. The name was suggested as a joke but became widely used and saw the previous two World Championship games retroactively named Super Bowl I and II.

Super Bowl III provided one of the biggest shocks in sport history and etched the newly created championship game into the fabric of American culture. The NFL champions, Baltimore Colts, began the game as 18-point favourites over the New York Jets, but in the days leading up to the big game, the Jets' controversial quarterback, Joe Namath, “guaranteed” victory and duly delivered with a 16-7 win to defy the odds. This was the first success by an AFL team in the Super Bowl and established the juvenile league as a competitive equal to the NFL.

The 1970 season saw the two leagues fully merge with the two championships being renamed the National Football Conference (NFC) and American Football Conference (AFC). Since this year, play-offs have been used to decide the winners of each conference after the completion of the regular season. The play-off winners of each league meeting in the Super Bowl to decide the NFL Champions.

Detroit played host to Super Bowl XL, when Pittsburgh Steelers started as favourites in the betting with the bookmakers to beat Seattle Seahawks. The Steelers' Ben Roethlisberger became the youngest quarterback to win the Super Bowl in its 40-year history as he ran in his side's opening touchdown. However, the pass of the game came from his teammate, Antwaan Randle El, who threw a 43-yard touchdown bomb to Hines Ward, who would be named as the game's Most Valuable Player.

The betting for Super Bowl XLI sees Indianopolis Colts installed as favourites after they opened last season with 13 consecutive victories, before defaet to Seattle ended their bid to emulate the 1972 Miami Dolphins who famoulsy went 16-0. The Colts completed the regular season with a 14-2 record, but lost in their opening play-off game to the Steelers by 21-18.