It’s January and for American football fans, that can only mean one thing: the Super Bowl is right around the corner. The country’s biggest sporting event is a staple of the calendar, attracting over 100 million viewers annually. While it’s meant to be all about the game, the event is also a significant moment for pop culture and consumerism, with 30-second ads costing millions of dollars.
As the culmination of the football season, the Super Bowl is a hotbed of betting activity. Countless people in the US and beyond place bets on it, hoping to win big and make a profit. If you fancy trying your luck, there’s still time to get involved. A typical sportsbook offers bets on the Super Bowl and dozens of other sporting events, and some of them even let you bet on chess. As we count down to Super Bowl 2025, here’s a round-up of what we know so far about it.
Date, Time & Location
Super Bowl 2025 is also known as Super Bowl LIX as it’s the 59th iteration of the championship game. It’s set to take place on February 9, which is the second Sunday of February, the day traditionally set aside for the game. It will start at 6:30 PM Eastern Standard Time and should last three to four hours.
Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana will host Super Bowl 2025. It will be the eighth time this particular stadium has played host to the Super Bowl and the eleventh time it’s happened in New Orleans. The first three times, the game was played in Tulane Stadium.
Entertainment
Jon Batiste has been lined up to perform the U.S. national anthem. Trombone Shorty and Lauren Daigle are due to sing ‘America the Beautiful’ and Ledisi has been confirmed as the performer of ‘Lift Every Voice and Sing’. All three of these performances will have sign language available: Stephanie Nogueras will sign the national anthem and ‘America the Beautiful,’ while Otis Jones IV will sign ‘Lift Every Voice and Sing.’
As for the halftime show, this is going to be headlined by Kendrick Lamar. The widely renowned hip hop artist and rapper has enjoyed a lot of both critical and commercial success. He’s released six albums, three of which have made Rolling Stone’s list ‘The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time,’ and was listed by Time as one of the world’s 100 most influential people in 2016. ‘Humble,’ ‘Like That,’ and ‘Not Like Us’ are among his biggest hits, though there’s no telling what he’ll perform on the day.
Broadcasting
This year’s Super Bowl will be broadcast on Fox, with Telemundo broadcasting the game in Spanish. Airing immediately afterwards will be the season 3 premiere of the game show The Floor. As ever, advertising spots for the game have faced huge demand. All of the spots have been sold as of the time of writing, with the cost of a 30-second ad reaching USD7 million. This is the highest amount that companies have ever paid for a Super Bowl ad, a clear sign that the game is still very much a lucrative marketing opportunity.
Teams
The two teams who will face each other in the Super Bowl haven’t been determined yet. The National Football League playoffs for the 2024-25 season started on January 11 and will finish on January 26. At this time, there will be a champion from both the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). These will be the two teams that will compete against each other in the Super Bowl.
If there’s one team to watch, it’s the Kansas City Chiefs, the Super Bowl’s reigning champions. The team has won the two most recent Super Bowls as well as the 2020 iteration, while also coming second in 2021. The San Francisco 49ers are also worth keeping an eye on, having made it to the Super Bowl twice since 2020, more than any other team except the Chiefs. The 49ers lost both times, but this could be the year they take things up a notch and clinch victory for themselves.
But what about the Dallas Cowboys? The team has won a total of five Super Bowls, but the most recent win was way back in 1996 against the Pittsburgh Steelers. As much as we’d love to see the Cowboys score a win, admittedly this doesn’t look too likely. Having said that, the Cowboys are doing just fine despite not winning the Super Bowl in close to 30 years. They’re clearly doing something right as they’ve recently been named the world’s first sports team to be valued at USD10 billion.
