Why a Baltimore Ravens vs. San Francisco 49ers Super Bowl Will Break the Internet

If there’s one thing that’s constant in the world of sports betting, it’s overreactions. There’s nothing our brains love more than to grab hold of a stat or tidbit of information and run wild with it, spooling a narrative thread as complex and multi-layered as a Christopher Nolan film.

In the NFL, the most narrative-driven of the major American sports, that impulse is ramped up to 11, and if the Baltimore Ravens face off against the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl, all hell could break loose.

How many times have you heard someone talk about the “script” in a game? Sports, the NFL in particular, always have those who cry “rigged” when a result doesn’t go a certain way. With the rise of social media and legalized gambling, this attitude has become more prominent, both in satire and from those who truly believe it.

The NFL has landed heavily into this notion as a marketing tactic, going as far as to run a preseason ad featuring “The Script” for the 2023-24 NFL season. Now, an errant on-screen graphic by a local news station has fans and conspiracy theorists alike wondering if the “script” for the Super Bowl has leaked.

The full table read for the NFL script just dropped. #YouCantMakeThisStuffUp #Kickoff2023 pic.twitter.com/ZDcgNI6arT

— NFL (@NFL) September 7, 2023

Did a News Station Accidentally “Reveal” The Super Bowl LVIII Matchup?

We must preface this by saying we in no way support the idea of a pre-determined Super Bowl matchup orchestrated by the NFL. At Dimers, we love data and numbers and that’s our bread and butter.

Anyway, as it goes, in a bizarre turn of events, a Canadian public television station has inadvertently sparked a wave of NFL conspiracy theories, suggesting a possible rigging of this year's Super Bowl LVIII matchup to feature the Ravens vs. 49ers when the big game kicks off in Las Vegas.

The speculation arose from a peculiar description of the February 11 championship game featured in a January 18th broadcast on CTV News Vancouver Island.

The caption from the on-screen graphic reads, ”Reba McEntire, Usher and Post Malone are slated to perform at San Francisco 49ers & Baltimore Ravens Super Bowl match-up on February 11."

What starts as a seemingly innocent blurb about the halftime show of the Super Bowl, quickly evolves into an eye-opening sentence that's basically chum in the water for conspiracy theorists.

The real fuel to the fire comes from the fact that the second round of the playoffs had not yet commenced at the time of the broadcast, before the 49ers and Ravens both went on to win their respective matchups, further fueling social media claims that the NFL's alleged script for the playoffs had been leaked. Fans and theorists alike are now delving headfirst into these claims as the anticipation surrounding the Super Bowl takes an unexpected detour into the realm of speculation.

We have to doubt that CTV News in Vancouver happens to be the one with the inside info from the NFL. This would be like MTV breaking the news that Tom Brady was running for president; it’s just not happening (no offense, Canada). What likely occurred was that some placeholder text accidentally made its way into a finished graphic that got past the eyes of one of the show’s producers.

It’s an honest mistake, though one has to wonder why the placeholder text wouldn’t simply read “Super Bowl LVIII,” as going as far as to include the potential teams serves no purpose while still being several weeks away from the game.

MORE: Chiefs vs. Ravens - Key Betting Trends for the AFC Championship

The Super Bowl LVIII Logo Conspiracy

This isn’t the first time a viral claim about the contestants in Super Bowl LVIII has reared its head, either. Dating way back to earlier in the season, this particular theory is built around the official Super Bowl LVIII logo, more specifically the primary colors featured within.

Two seasons ago, the Super Bowl LVI logo used orange and yellow colors, notably matching the main colors of the Cincinnati Bengals and the Los Angeles Rams who clashed at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles during that season, with the Rams leaving as Champions.

In the following season, the Super Bowl LVII was notably green(ish) and red, before the Chiefs and Eagles faced off in the title game.

Now the speculation is that, you guessed it, the Ravens and 49ers will battle it out on the field of Super Bowl LVIII as the logo is primarily purple and red.

Yeah, that’s it. Not exactly the foundational evidence you’re bringing to Congress with proof of the NFL’s rigged matchup. But the combination of the logo conspiracy and the recent Canadian TV flub has fans and theorists running rampant with the idea.

Anyone else notice this? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/edOCyKqEET

— NFL Memes (@NFL_Memes) November 8, 2023

What are The Odds of a Ravens vs. 49ers Super Bowl?

Our model’s most-likely Super Bowl result might have you thinking DimersBOT itself is a conspiracy theorist, as we strongly support the possibility of a Ravens vs. 49ers showdown in Super Bowl LVIII.

However, that’s just because we’ve run 1000s of simulations on the NFL season, playoffs included, to determine our most likely results. Before the playoffs even got underway, we showed you our 10 Most Likely Super Bowl matchups and you know who we had No. 1? The Ravens vs. 49ers as our most likely results sat at a 15.7% probability.

That was +310 at the time, with those odds shortening to just +110 now that four teams remain.

With 10 of the playoff teams eliminated from contention, our model favors this matchup even more strongly, giving the Ravens a 61% probability to punch their ticket to Super Bowl LVIII and a 71% probability for the 49ers to do the same. It's the last time you'll find those Super Bowl matchup odds at plus money, so if you're feeling adventurous, find out how a $5 bet on that very matchup can net you $158 in bonus bets.

So, what do you think? A multi-layered, color-coordinating conspiracy leaked by a rogue Canadian TV station….or just the best teams in the world on track to determine the champion of them all?