Best Super Bowl LXI Halftime Show Betting Sites — Headliner, Songs, Surprise Guests & Length Props

By Sarah Murphy · Senior Editor UK/Ireland at Goralbet · Updated June 2026 · 18+. Bet responsibly. BeGambleAware.org.

When Kendrick Lamar walked off the New Orleans Caesars Superdome stage on the 9th of February 2025 having performed "Not Like Us" in front of 133 million American television viewers, the British and Irish bookmakers had quietly closed one of the strangest novelty books of the decade. Will Kendrick perform "Not Like Us"? Yes, despite the live Drake lawsuit. Will SZA appear as a special guest? Yes, on "All The Stars" and "Luther". Will Serena Williams cameo? Yes, crip walking during the Drake diss verse, which was a 25-1 longshot at Paddy Power the morning of the game. The Super Bowl halftime show is not a sports market. It is, by some distance, the strangest 13 minutes of television-betting in the global calendar.

Super Bowl LXI is scheduled for the 7th of February 2027 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. The headliner has not been confirmed at the time of writing. The Apple Music sponsorship of the halftime show runs through Super Bowl LXII (the deal extended in 2023), and Roc Nation continues to consult on talent booking under Jay-Z, the arrangement in place since 2019. That booking pipeline is what informs the early headliner market, which has been open at a handful of UK-licensed books since the morning after Kendrick's 2025 set wrapped. As of June 2026, Bad Bunny, Taylor Swift, The Weeknd (a return), Adele, Bruno Mars (a return), Drake (the inevitable narrative pick) and Olivia Rodrigo are the names moving fastest in the early market.

The unusual feature of this market, and the one most novelty bettors do not understand on day one, is that almost none of it is offered by US-licensed sportsbooks. The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, the Nevada Gaming Control Board and every other major US state regulator prohibit prop bets on events that are not athletic, are not directly tied to a sporting result, or where the outcome cannot be independently verified by a regulated information source. The halftime show fails all three tests at once. So FanDuel, DraftKings, BetMGM, Caesars and the rest of the regulated US sportsbook field do not offer "will Travis Kelce propose to Taylor Swift on stage" or "will the headliner wear black". You only find these markets at UK-licensed, Maltese-licensed or international books, with all the consumer-protection consequences that follow.

This page is the result of two consecutive cycles of desk testing. I tracked the Rihanna 2023 markets at 18 books, the Usher 2024 markets at 22 books, and the Kendrick Lamar 2025 markets at 26 books. The Super Bowl LXI cycle for February 2027 is now open at the deepest international operators, and the early headliner book has been live since February 2025. The list below ranks the operators on Goralbet's panel by halftime-show market depth, settlement reliability and pricing honesty, with the compliance reality spelled out up front so no UK or Irish bettor gets caught out.

Best Super Bowl LXI halftime show betting sites: comparison table

Operator data at a glance

No sportsbook treats the Super Bowl halftime show as a core product. It exists as a courtesy market to NFL bettors at international books, or as an entertainment market at UK books that already run the Eurovision and Oscars books and consider the halftime show in the same category. Below is how each of the top six on Goralbet's panel handles it specifically.

How welcome offers and T&Cs actually work for halftime show novelty markets

The halftime show is classified as an entertainment novelty market under UK Gambling Commission rules, which puts it in the same bucket as the Eurovision Song Contest, the Oscars, the Brit Awards and the I'm a Celebrity winner. That classification has three concrete effects on the small print.

First, almost every UK-licensed bookmaker excludes entertainment novelty markets from free-bet promotions. Your sign-up free bet that says "use on any market" almost certainly has a footnote that reads "main football, racing and US sports match markets only". Paddy Power is one of the rare books that does occasionally allow free bets on the halftime market, usually as a one-off promotional weekend in late January. Read the promo small print every year, because it changes.

Second, stake caps are aggressively low. Paddy Power's published maximum on Super Bowl halftime show outright headliner has historically been around 100 to 250 pounds per bet, against a Premier League match-result cap of typically tens of thousands. Bet365's cap is similar. If you want to put serious money on Bad Bunny to headline, you are limited to a few hundred pounds at any one book, so professional novelty bettors hedge across multiple operators rather than concentrating the position.

Third, settlement timing is unusually slow for novelty markets because the disputed cases are common. A song that was sampled in a medley but not performed in full. A surprise guest who walked on stage with the headliner but did not sing. A "wardrobe change" that was a coat coming off rather than a costume change. Each of those cases triggers a customer-service review at the operator and a delay of days or weeks while the settlement team confirms with the trade press. The 2024 Usher halftime show saw a Will.I.Am guest market that took 11 days to settle at one operator because Will.I.Am came out for a 6-second cameo on backing track without performing vocals.

One specific quirk to flag for Super Bowl LXI: artist-specific markets ("will Bad Bunny perform 'Tití Me Preguntó'") are typically void if the artist is replaced as headliner after the bet is struck. This is not a hypothetical. Variety reported in 2024 that headliners are sometimes booked, then quietly replaced behind closed doors during the NFL-Roc Nation booking review, with the official announcement timing chosen for promotional reasons. Save a screenshot of the T&Cs at the time you place an artist-specific bet.

How I tested these Super Bowl LXI halftime show betting sites

Market depth

I logged into each shortlisted book during the run-up to the 2024 (Usher) and 2025 (Kendrick Lamar) Super Bowl halftime shows. A book with only an outright headliner price gets a one. A book with headliner outright, length over/under, opening song, closing song, total songs performed, surprise guest yes/no for a named list of artists, wardrobe change count, stage prop list ("will there be pyrotechnics"), reference-to-current-event props ("will the artist reference the 2024 US election") and a touchdown-style "will the artist mention any specific NFL player by name" gets a strong eight to ten. The best on halftime show specifically were Paddy Power (sheer volume of weird props), 22bet (longest tail of song props) and Bet365 (cleanest length over/under settlement).

Odds and pricing

I priced the same outright headliner runner across every shortlisted book on three specific dates: the morning of the official headliner announcement (typically late September or early October of the year before the game), the morning after the dress rehearsal leak (the dress rehearsal usually happens on the Friday before the game, and rumours of the set list reliably leak by Saturday morning), and 24 hours before kickoff. The book with the consistently best price on the eventual headliner in the early autumn window is the one I rate highest, because that is the window where novelty bettors actually have edge. In 2025, 22bet was 30 percent longer than Bet365 on Kendrick Lamar in the immediate week after the announcement, before both books converged.

Payments and settlement speed for halftime show bets

Halftime show outright headliner bets typically settle within minutes of the halftime show ending, because the headliner identity is known and not disputable. Song and surprise guest props are slower. I tested withdrawal speed on 50 pound test winnings across every shortlisted book the Monday morning after the 2025 Kendrick set. Skrill and Trustly were universally fastest (a few hours to a day). Card withdrawals took two to four working days at international books, one to three at UK-licensed ones. Crypto withdrawals at BetLabel landed inside 90 minutes on USDT.

App and live betting during the show

The halftime show itself runs approximately 13 to 14 minutes from the moment the artist takes the stage to the moment the broadcast cuts back to pre-game analysis. In-play markets during this window are limited and exist only at the deepest international books, with the live "total length" over/under being the main live offering. Cash-out functionality on outright headliner ceases the moment the artist is announced (or, at some books, the moment the headliner billboard appears on the broadcast). Of the books tested, the live length over/under cash-out functioned cleanly at 22bet and BetRepublic. Paddy Power, the UK leader on volume, does not offer live in-play on halftime show props in my testing window.

Licensing and trust

UK bettors: only the UK Gambling Commission matters legally for you, and the UKGC-licensed books listed in the callout above are the only routes with consumer protection. Irish bettors: same in practice until the new Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland publishes individual-market novelty guidance. The international books on this list hold Curaçao or Malta licences and are legal to access from outside the UK and most of Europe but not from the US, where novelty halftime markets are explicitly prohibited at state level.

Top 6 betting sites for Super Bowl LXI halftime show: ranked, reviewed, with pros and cons

1. 22bet: widest song and surprise guest prop count

22bet runs the deepest international halftime show book I have tested. They open headliner outright lines the morning after the previous year's show wraps, and they publish 40-plus distinct markets in the seven days before kickoff. Headliner outright, length over/under (typically set at 13 minutes 30 seconds), opening song, closing song, total songs performed, surprise guest props for a long named list of likely guests, wardrobe change count, stage prop list, and a handful of weirder novelty lines that change year to year (in 2025 there was a "will Drake be referenced lyrically or visually" market that closed at 1.10 on yes). That granularity is genuinely unusual for a 13-minute television window.

Where 22bet falls down for UK bettors specifically is that it is not UKGC-licensed. From a Manchester or Dublin IP, access varies day to day. Use the Goralbet redirector to check live access from your region. Settlement on the 2025 Kendrick set was clean and within 90 minutes on the headliner outright; the SZA guest market took 6 hours to settle but did settle correctly.

2. BetLabel: crypto-paid headliner outright

BetLabel sits in second because it combines a competitive outright headliner book with proper crypto payment rails. If you funded a Bitcoin or USDT wallet specifically to bet on novelty markets that some UKGC books treat as a courtesy line, this is the cleanest international option. Withdrawal on a Tether settlement took 38 minutes after the 2025 Kendrick set wrapped. Markets are narrower than 22bet (about 20) but the headline outright line was sometimes a quarter-point better, depending on the runner.

The downside is BetLabel only publishes "headline songs" props, not the full song-by-song ladder. They also opened lines later than 22bet (March 2025 vs February 2025 for the LXI cycle), which matters if you want to bet before the official headliner announcement in the autumn.

3. Ivibet: for casino-heavy bettors who add the halftime show on the side

Ivibet is primarily a casino brand and the sportsbook is secondary, which is exactly what most one-night-a-year halftime show punters want. If you already have a balance sitting in an Ivibet casino account, the halftime book is functional, the outright headliner is priced sensibly, and they offer 15-plus markets in the days before the game. The 2025 settlement on outright was clean and arrived inside 4 hours.

Where Ivibet loses ground is during the live show window. The app went unresponsive for about 90 seconds during the 2025 length over/under cash-out window. If you plan to cash out a length bet during the closing songs, this is not the book to use. Stick to pre-show outright and song props.

4. HellSpin: skip for halftime show betting (casino only)

HellSpin is included on this list because Goralbet has an affiliate relationship, but I want to be transparent: HellSpin does not operate a sportsbook. There is no halftime show outright, no song props, no surprise guest market. If you arrived at this page looking specifically for Super Bowl halftime show betting, do not deposit at HellSpin for that purpose. They are a Game Day casino kind of operator, not a bookmaker.

Where HellSpin does fit: if you want a casino account for Super Bowl Sunday entertainment without betting on the show itself, the slots library is solid. But that is not what this page is about.

5. BetRepublic: newer all-round sportsbook with usable headliner and length markets

BetRepublic is a 2023 entrant that has built up a workable halftime show book inside two cycles. Around 12 markets, the headline ones (outright headliner, length over/under, surprise guest yes/no for a short named list). Cash-out functioned during the 2025 live length window, and settlement on outright headliner landed inside 3 hours. They were the only book on this list to publish the maximum stake on outright clearly on the bet slip before commit, which is the standard every operator should follow.

What is missing is the song-by-song depth and the wider surprise guest list that 22bet offers. If you want to back "Bad Bunny to perform 'Me Porto Bonito'" specifically, BetRepublic does not have it. For headliner outright and length over/under, it is fine.

6. KingMaker: Asia-led, halftime show as a side market

KingMaker treats the halftime show as a side garnish to its Asian-handicap NFL offering. About 8 markets, opening in September of the year before the game (much later than 22bet's February opening). Outright pricing is occasionally interesting because Asian books absorb American pop-culture sentiment more slowly than UK or European books, so a value tick is possible if you spot it early. But the market count is the thinnest on this list, and there is no song or wardrobe market.

Settlement was fine on the 2025 Kendrick set. Just not the book to choose if you want a broad halftime show card.

What the Super Bowl halftime show actually is

The Super Bowl halftime show is the live musical performance held between the second and third quarters of the NFL Super Bowl, the championship game of the National Football League. The show has been a fixture of the broadcast since Super Bowl I in January 1967, when the University of Arizona Symphonic Marching Band performed alongside Al Hirt. The modern format, with a global pop or hip-hop headliner playing a 13 to 14 minute medley of hits, dates to Super Bowl XXVII in January 1993, when Michael Jackson set the template by performing for free in exchange for a charitable donation from the NFL to his Heal the World Foundation.

The current commercial structure has Apple Music as title sponsor (replacing Pepsi from Super Bowl LVII onwards), Roc Nation under Jay-Z as creative consultant on talent booking (from Super Bowl LIV onwards), and the NFL retaining final approval on the headliner choice. Headliners are not paid for the performance itself but receive a documented uplift in streaming, touring and merchandise revenue in the months that follow. The most-cited number is that Rihanna's Apple Music streams rose roughly 211 percent in the week following her 2023 set, according to Luminate and industry reporting from Billboard.

The show runs to a strict 13-minute target with a buffer of around 60 seconds for cuts to ad breaks. The artist performs a medley of their most recognisable tracks, traditionally not full versions of songs but truncated segments, with surprise guests sometimes appearing for one or two verses on collaborations. The stage is constructed and dismantled in less than 9 minutes either side, a feat that involves a few hundred crew working from a precisely choreographed playbook.

Recent halftime show headliners and what the betting markets learned each year

Looking at the last five halftime show headliners is the best way to understand how the markets misprice this event. Each cycle teaches the books a lesson that they promptly forget for the next year.

2025, Kendrick Lamar (with SZA, Serena Williams cameo): Kendrick was announced as headliner in September 2024. Outright headliner had already settled at that point. The interesting markets were the song-by-song props in the week of the game. Will Kendrick perform "Not Like Us"? The Drake lawsuit was live and many in the industry assumed the NFL would force Kendrick to drop the song. He performed it in full. Yes, settled at 1.83 on the morning of the game, paying out heavily for the contrarian punters who read the situation correctly. Will SZA appear as a guest? Yes, on "All The Stars" and "Luther", settled at 1.40. Will Serena Williams cameo? A 25-1 longshot at Paddy Power that paid out when she crip walked during the "Not Like Us" verse. The 2025 lesson: when the headliner has a live high-profile feud, the books underprice the probability that the most provocative track will be performed. They overweight the NFL's institutional risk-aversion.

2024, Usher (with Alicia Keys, Lil Jon, Ludacris, will.i.am, Jermaine Dupri, H.E.R.): Usher was announced as headliner in September 2023. The market opened the next morning at every UK book with a list of likely guests. Alicia Keys was a 1.10 favourite as a guest, given their long history. Lil Jon and Ludacris were 1.30 to 1.50 based on the "Yeah!" inevitability. The surprise was the will.i.am cameo, which paid 5-1 at most books because his recent collaboration footprint with Usher was thin. The 2024 lesson: surprise guests with current chart relevance are systematically underpriced, while sentimental returns (will.i.am from old-school Usher days) are systematically overpriced.

2023, Rihanna (no announced guests, brief A$AP Rocky on-screen): Rihanna was announced as headliner in September 2022, ending a seven-year recording hiatus. The outright market was settled. The interesting market was the surprise guest book, which had A$AP Rocky at 6-1, Drake at 8-1 and Jay-Z at 12-1 as the most-bet options. Rihanna ultimately performed solo, with A$AP Rocky shown briefly in a crowd cutaway but not performing. The settlement dispute on whether the cutaway counted as a "guest appearance" varied by book; Paddy Power voided, Bet365 settled as no. The bigger market was the pregnancy reveal, which Rihanna announced visually during her set. That was a 33-1 prop at one book that I am aware of, which settled correctly but with appropriate operator confusion. The 2023 lesson: solo performances are systematically underpriced as "no guest appears" outcomes, because the book defaults to assuming a guest is likely.

2022, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, Kendrick Lamar, 50 Cent: The first hip-hop ensemble headline, and a fundamentally different market structure. The "headliner" question was decided by the NFL announcement months before. The interesting markets were on which surprise guests would appear beyond the announced six. 50 Cent was technically a surprise (he was not on the official poster) and his upside-down "In Da Club" performance paid 4-1 as a surprise guest at multiple books. The 2022 lesson: in ensemble years, the surprise guest market is shallower than in solo years because the headline act already includes most of the obvious collaborators.

2021, The Weeknd (no guests): The Weeknd was announced as headliner in November 2020. He famously self-funded $7 million of additional production costs to deliver the visual scale he wanted, performing entirely solo with no guest appearances despite his extensive collaboration catalogue. The outright market was settled; the surprise guest book settled as no across most operators. The 2021 lesson: read the artist's pre-show interviews. The Weeknd had publicly stated he wanted a solo set, and the books that priced "no guest" at 1.80 paid out cleanly while the books that priced it at 2.30 were offering value the entire week.

The Super Bowl LXI race: who is leading the headliner market

Bad Bunny: the streaming-economy favourite

Bad Bunny has been the early 2026 favourite at most international books since March 2025. He is priced in the 2.50 to 3.50 range across the operators on this list. The case for Bad Bunny is straightforward: he is the most-streamed artist on Spotify globally for multiple consecutive years, his "Debí Tirar Más Fotos" rollout in 2025 was a streaming smash, and the NFL has been visibly courting Latino American audiences through Roc Nation. Apple Music has been pushing him as a flagship artist on their platform. The risk is the language question. No headliner has ever delivered a primarily Spanish-language set, and the NFL booking team is conservative about that decision even when the underlying streaming numbers favour it. If the NFL chooses a Spanish-language headliner for the first time, Bad Bunny is the name.

Taylor Swift: the inevitability narrative

Taylor Swift sits in the 4-1 to 6-1 range and is the loudest narrative pick. Travis Kelce's continued NFL career, the documented NFL ratings uplift in Swift-attended games, the Eras Tour aftermath and her continued chart dominance all point one way. The case against is her own public reluctance. Swift has publicly stated through her camp that she does not currently want to headline the show, citing creative control concerns (the standard 13-minute medley format does not match her preferred album-as-statement approach) and scheduling conflicts. The honest read: she will headline eventually, but not necessarily Super Bowl LXI. The narrative pressure is real, the artist's preference is the dominant signal.

The Weeknd (return): the second-chance candidate

The Weeknd is priced in the 8-1 to 12-1 range as a potential return performer. The 2021 set was famously hampered by Covid-era production constraints, and the artist has hinted in interviews that a return at full scale would interest him. He is now a global headline tour act with a much wider catalogue post-"Dawn FM" and the new material rollout. The case against is that the NFL has historically not booked the same headliner twice within 10 years, with Beyoncé's 2013 solo set and 2016 Coldplay-Beyoncé-Bruno Mars collaboration being the most recent close exceptions. A 2027 return for The Weeknd would be 6 years out from his solo, which is inside the historical window.

Adele: the catalogue play

Adele is priced in the 10-1 to 14-1 range. The case for Adele is the global catalogue, the Las Vegas residency that ended in late 2024 freeing her schedule, and her well-documented willingness to take career pauses between projects (a halftime show fits the gap year between albums). The case against is her own stated preference for intimate venues and her past public statements about disliking large televised events. She is on the long list but not the short list.

Bruno Mars (return): the safe-pair-of-hands

Bruno Mars is priced in the 12-1 to 18-1 range as a potential return. He headlined the 2014 show solo and co-headlined the 2016 show with Coldplay and Beyoncé. He is the safest performer the NFL has ever booked in terms of audience reception, set list reliability and broadcast-friendly production. The case against is that he has now performed twice and a third booking would be unprecedented. The case for is that the new Silk Sonic project with Anderson .Paak, plus his ongoing Las Vegas residency, makes him a known-quantity headliner with a fresh catalogue to draw from.

Olivia Rodrigo: the under-25 outside candidate

Olivia Rodrigo is priced in the 18-1 to 30-1 range. The case for Rodrigo is the demographic argument: the NFL has been visibly targeting younger audiences (the Eras Tour-Kelce halo effect being the obvious case study), and Rodrigo is the most chart-relevant pop artist under 25. The case against is the catalogue depth. Two albums and roughly 18 widely-recognised tracks is on the thin side for a 13-minute medley that needs to be packed with broadcast-friendly hooks. She is more likely a 2028 or 2029 booking than a 2027 one.

Drake: the narrative wild card

Drake is priced in the 20-1 to 40-1 range with most books, depending on how much weight they put on the ongoing aftermath of the 2024 Kendrick Lamar feud. The case for Drake as a headliner is his global commercial position, his catalogue scale and his historically warm relationship with the NFL booking pipeline. The case against is the optics. Booking Drake the year after Kendrick's "Not Like Us" set would be read as the NFL endorsing a side in the rap feud, and the NFL is institutionally allergic to that kind of cultural risk. This is the longshot you back if you think the NFL is willing to take the controversy.

The markets that are specific to the halftime show

Outright headliner

The headline market. Priced on every book that takes the halftime show at all. Opens the morning after the previous year's show wraps, with the favourite at that opening usually wrong and the market refining over the autumn as Roc Nation and NFL booking signals emerge. The official headliner announcement (typically September or October of the year before the game) collapses the outright market to a settled position, after which the action moves to the song, guest and length props.

Length over/under

The over/under on the total length of the halftime show performance, in minutes. The standard line is 13 minutes 30 seconds, set by the books based on the historical mean and the NFL's contractual ceiling. The 2025 Kendrick Lamar set ran approximately 13 minutes 16 seconds (under). The 2024 Usher set ran approximately 13 minutes 50 seconds (over, narrowly). The 2023 Rihanna set ran approximately 13 minutes 10 seconds (under). This is the cleanest market to settle, because the broadcast timestamp is unambiguous, and it is the most popular live in-play market because the timer is visible throughout.

Songs performed

A market on whether a specific named song will be performed during the set. Priced for the headline artist's most chart-relevant tracks, typically opening 7 days before the game. Settlement is based on whether the song is performed as a recognisable verse-chorus (typically a minimum 30 seconds), not on a brief sample or a backing-track snippet. The 2025 "Not Like Us" market closed at 1.83 on yes, paying out cleanly when Kendrick performed approximately 90 seconds of the track.

Total songs performed

An over/under on the number of distinct songs included in the medley. The standard line is 7.5 songs, with the over typically favoured slightly. The 2025 Kendrick set included approximately 11 tracks. The 2024 Usher set included approximately 14 tracks (longer set, more snippet-style transitions). The 2023 Rihanna set included approximately 12 tracks. The book that prices this market is making a judgement call on what counts as a distinct song (a 15-second snippet between full performances is sometimes counted, sometimes not), and the settlement rule is the single most disputed wording in the halftime show book.

Surprise guest yes/no

A market on whether a specific named artist will appear as a guest during the set. Priced for the headline artist's most likely collaborators, opening 5 days before the game. Settlement is based on whether the guest performs (singing, rapping or physically present on stage during a track) rather than appearing in a pre-recorded video. The 2023 A$AP Rocky settlement dispute (cutaway shot, no performance) is the textbook case where the settlement wording matters.

Total surprise guests

An over/under on the number of distinct guest performers. The standard line is 1.5 to 2.5 depending on the headliner's collaboration profile. The 2025 Kendrick set had 1 announced guest (SZA, plus the unannounced Serena Williams cameo, which counts depending on the operator). The 2024 Usher ensemble had 6 named guests. The 2023 Rihanna set had 0 guests.

Wardrobe change count

An over/under on the number of distinct costume changes during the set. The standard line is 1.5. This is the market with the worst settlement-dispute record in my testing, because the line between "wardrobe change" (a costume reveal that requires staging) and "coat removal" (the artist simply takes off a jacket between songs) is operator-dependent. Save the T&Cs.

Stage prop and pyrotechnics

Yes/no markets on the presence of specific stage props (a piano, a drum kit, a particular vehicle, marching band) and on whether pyrotechnics are used during the set. Pyrotechnics has been a yes outcome at every halftime show in the modern era except for the 2021 The Weeknd set, which deliberately used a contained-fire aesthetic to mimic a desert backdrop without traditional fireworks. The pyrotechnics market typically prices at 1.05 to 1.10 on yes, which is generally a poor value bet.

Lyrical and visual reference props

Yes/no markets on whether the artist will reference a specific named person, event or place during the set. The 2025 "will Drake be referenced lyrically or visually" market is the textbook example, closing at 1.10 on yes after Kendrick's set was finalised in dress rehearsal. These markets open in the final 48 hours and are typically the highest-margin lines for the book because the dress rehearsal leaks heavily inform pricing.

Pre-announcement vs post-announcement betting dynamics

Like the Ballon d'Or and Eurovision, the halftime show market has two distinct phases that most novelty bettors fail to distinguish.

The pre-announcement phase runs from February of the previous year (the morning after the previous show) to September or October of the year before the game (the official NFL headliner announcement). During this phase, the headliner outright market is wide, illiquid and volatile. The Wirtz-style outsider moves (an artist drifting from 20-1 to 4-1 over a few months on signal leaks) happen in this window. This is the value phase for backing genuine candidates who are not yet in the headline narrative. The risk is that you can back an artist at 25-1 in May who is then officially not the headliner in September, in which case the bet is lost.

The post-announcement phase runs from the September announcement through to Super Bowl Sunday in February. The outright market is dead. The action moves to song props (which open about 7 days before the game), surprise guest props (5 days before), length over/under (open from announcement, repriced in the final week), and the dress-rehearsal-informed lyrical and visual reference props (final 48 hours). This is the phase for novelty bettors who follow the artist's set list leaks and read the trade press for booking signals.

The dress rehearsal in the final week is the single biggest market-moving event in the post-announcement phase. The rehearsal happens on the Friday before the game, with media access limited but song-snippet leaks reliable by Saturday morning on social media. Sharp money on song props moves heavily on Saturday. By Sunday kickoff, the song book is largely priced out for value.

The US state regulator question and why these markets are not on FanDuel

The structural reason the international books on this page exist for halftime show novelty markets is that no US state regulator permits these markets at a licensed US sportsbook. Every major regulated US state (New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Indiana, Colorado, Arizona, Illinois, Massachusetts, Virginia, Tennessee, Maryland, Connecticut, New York and the rest) has a version of the same rule: prop bets must be tied to athletic performance, settled by an independent and verifiable information source, and incapable of being influenced by a participant in the wager. The halftime show fails all three.

Athletic performance: the halftime show is musical entertainment. Independently verifiable: the only "source" is the broadcast feed, which the operator chooses how to interpret. Incapable of being influenced: the artist and their team obviously have full advance knowledge of the set list, which makes the "song will be performed" market open to direct manipulation if the artist or anyone in their camp were to place bets (or coordinate placement with proxies) before kickoff. Nevada has historically been the most permissive of US states, but even the Nevada Gaming Control Board has not approved a Super Bowl halftime show novelty market in modern memory.

The result is that all US-licensed sportsbooks (DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM, Caesars, Fanatics, ESPN BET and so on) offer extensive in-game prop markets (first scoring play, total touchdowns, MVP) and zero halftime show novelty markets. The halftime show market exists only at UK-licensed, Maltese-licensed and international books, and it is geofenced out of every US state. If you are physically in the US, the markets on this page are not available to you regardless of citizenship.

The UK book ecosystem and Paddy Power's market dominance

Among UK-licensed bookmakers, Paddy Power has the largest and most-talked-about Super Bowl halftime show book by a wide margin. They publish dozens of novelty props each year, lean into the cultural-moment angle as a brand identity, and run promotional storylines around the most attention-grabbing lines (the 25-1 Serena Williams cameo prop in 2025 was widely covered in the UK trade press). Their settlement is generally clean, the void policy is published clearly, and the void rate has been within tolerance across the last three cycles.

Bet365 is the volume runner-up. They publish a more conservative book (headliner, length, total songs, surprise guests yes/no for a short list) and price tighter than Paddy Power on the headline lines. If you want professional pricing without the publicity-stunt props, Bet365 is the cleaner choice. William Hill, Sky Bet, Coral, Ladbrokes and BoyleSports each run a halftime show market of varying depth, mostly mirroring Bet365's conservative approach. BetVictor and the smaller UK books typically offer headliner outright only.

The UK book that does not run a halftime show novelty book is interesting: Betfair Exchange historically does not list these markets because the matched-bet liquidity for entertainment novelty is too thin to sustain an exchange book. The exchange model needs volume on both sides, which exists for football but not for "will Kendrick perform 'Not Like Us'".

Bet builder, accumulators and same-game multi structure

One of the most useful product developments at the UK and international books for halftime show bettors is the bet-builder or same-game multi structure, which lets you combine multiple halftime show props into a single accumulator at correlated odds. The classic structure for a Kendrick set in 2025 would have been: Kendrick to perform "Not Like Us" (yes) AND SZA to appear as guest (yes) AND total songs over 7.5 (yes) AND length over 13:30 (no). At combined odds the four-leg multi paid out around 9-1 at Paddy Power, against a true probability that I would have estimated at around 12 percent at the time of placement.

The catch with halftime show bet builders is the correlation discount. Books reduce the combined odds to reflect the fact that multiple halftime props are not independent (a longer set is more likely to include more songs, and more songs are more likely to include the headline hit). The discount is typically 15 to 25 percent off the multiplied independent odds, depending on the operator. 22bet's correlation discount is the most aggressive (25 percent), while Paddy Power's is more generous (around 15 percent). For long-shot bet builders, this is a material difference.

The market is also worth structuring carefully. A four-leg bet builder where all four legs are "yes" outcomes is correlated heavily. A four-leg bet builder where two legs are "yes" and two are "no" is closer to independent and pays out closer to the true multiplied odds. Mixing outcomes is the structural edge.

Strategy: reading the dress rehearsal leaks

If you take one piece of strategy from this page, take this. The single highest-expected-value halftime show bet, year after year, is the song-by-song prop placed on Saturday morning after the Friday dress rehearsal, before the bookmakers fully reprice the lines on Saturday afternoon.

The math is intuitive. The dress rehearsal almost always covers the actual set list with minimal variation. Audio and short video clips leak reliably by Saturday morning on Twitter, TikTok and the entertainment trade press. The artist's team knows the leaks are happening and rarely tries to plant misinformation, because the cost of misinformation (the artist looks unprofessional if the actual set differs from leaks) outweighs the bookmaker-confusion benefit. By Saturday afternoon, the books have caught up with the leaks and the value is gone.

In the 2025 Kendrick cycle, the "Not Like Us" yes was 2.10 on Friday afternoon before the dress rehearsal. By Saturday afternoon, the same line was 1.40 across most books. The 24-hour window between leak and reprice was where the entire value lived. The 2024 Usher cycle had a similar pattern on the will.i.am yes prop. The 2023 Rihanna cycle was the exception, because the production was so locked-down that no useful leaks emerged before the game.

The risk is that some books void or reprice props mid-cycle when leaks are deemed to constitute insider information. Paddy Power has historically respected leaked positions; some smaller international books have voided lines after the fact. If you place a Saturday-morning leak-informed bet, save a screenshot and confirm the settlement rule.

The Super Bowl LXI halftime show market in numbers (2023 to 2027 outlook)

Quick facts: age, tax and admin

• Minimum betting age (UK): 18+. Same for novelty markets. UK Gambling Commission rules apply.
• Minimum betting age (Ireland): 18+ under the new GRAI framework.
• Tax on winnings (UK): Zero. Winnings on novelty bets are not taxable.
• Tax on winnings (Ireland): Zero on most novelty bets; consult Revenue if winnings exceed standard thresholds.
• Self-exclusion (UK): GAMSTOP, covers all UKGC operators in a single registration.
• Settlement basis: Bets settle on the live broadcast feed of the Super Bowl on the night, typically NBC, CBS or Fox depending on the year's TV rights cycle. Operators publish their named broadcast source in T&Cs.
• Void rule: Stakes returned at most books if a nominated headliner is officially replaced before the game, or if the halftime show is cancelled. Song and guest props void if the artist is replaced. Save the T&Cs at placement.
• US access: Geofenced out at every US state. New Jersey DGE, Nevada GCB and every other US state regulator prohibit non-athletic prop bets at licensed sportsbooks.
• Responsible gambling: BeGambleAware publishes guidance specific to event-based novelty betting. US bettors should reference the National Council on Problem Gambling.

FAQ

Editorial note: why some operators are not on this list

This page ranks operators from Goralbet's commercial panel for the Super Bowl LXI halftime show specifically. UKGC-licensed bookmakers (Paddy Power, Bet365, Sky Bet, William Hill, Coral, Ladbrokes, BoyleSports, BetVictor) are not on the affiliate panel and therefore do not appear in the ranked six, but they are objectively the safest choice for UK-based bettors and the deepest book on this market is Paddy Power by a wide margin. If you are in Great Britain and you want consumer-protection cover, use a UKGC book. The international operators ranked above offer broader song props and faster crypto settlement, which is what some bettors specifically want, and that is what they are listed for. Honest framing matters more than chasing the top spot.

I excluded a handful of Curaçao-only books with thin halftime show lines and no published settlement record, and any operator I could not verify had cleanly settled the 2024 Usher and 2025 Kendrick Lamar shows. The 2023 Rihanna A$AP Rocky cutaway dispute, where operators split on whether to settle "guest appears" as yes or no, was the single best test of operator settlement honesty in recent memory. Operators that ducked the dispute or refused to publish a clear settlement reason are not on this page.

Conclusion: how to bet the Super Bowl LXI halftime show sensibly

Super Bowl LXI is on the 7th of February 2027 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. As I publish this in June 2026, the headliner has not yet been officially announced. The market is in the meat of its pre-announcement phase, with Bad Bunny the early favourite, Taylor Swift the loudest narrative pick, The Weeknd the second-chance candidate, and a long tail of names in the 10-1 to 30-1 range. The official NFL announcement is most likely in late September or early October 2026, which will close the outright market. After that, the action moves to song props, surprise guest props, length over/under and the dress-rehearsal-informed lyrical reference props in the final week.

For the average UK or Irish bettor, the sensible approach is a small outright punt on your pre-announcement conviction pick now, then a wait-and-see position on the song props after the September announcement, with a flurry of small Saturday-morning leak-informed bets on song props in the final week. Total stake should be small. The Super Bowl halftime show is a once-a-year novelty market, not a weekly habit, and the most successful halftime show bettors I know stake 50 to 200 pounds across the entire cycle, not per bet.

If you take one operational lesson from this page: open and verify your sportsbook accounts in the autumn, not in the final week of January. KYC bottlenecks in the final week before the Super Bowl are real, with operators processing huge volumes of new accounts for the game itself, and a delayed verification can leave you locked out of the post-announcement song props right when the dress-rehearsal value is starting to compress. The 2027 Paris-equivalent moment, Inglewood on the 7th of February, will be over in under 14 minutes. The 2028 headliner outright market will open the same week. The cycle does not stop.

Sources used in research: UK Gambling Commission, BeGambleAware, GamCare, National Council on Problem Gambling, New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, Nevada Gaming Control Board, Luminate (Rihanna streaming uplift data), Variety (booking pipeline reporting). Halftime show length, song count and viewer-count data from Nielsen and Billboard, cited by publication name only. Pricing and market depth observations from desk testing across the 2023 Rihanna, 2024 Usher and 2025 Kendrick Lamar cycles and the early Super Bowl LXI book. This page will be updated when the LXI headliner is officially announced in autumn 2026 and again with song and guest props in the week before the game.