Millions of Americans who chose heads came away from the coin toss before Super Bowl XLVI on Sunday night quite happy as they won free pizza and 2-liter of Pepsi MAX at Papa John’s (I’m still waiting for my email on how to claim it!). However, from a betting perspective it was a losing proposition at WagerWeb for the vast majority of players.

The No. 1 prop in terms of action for Super Bowl XLVI between the Patriots and Giants was on the coin toss and the huge lean was on tails at the site. This was the fourth Super Bowl in a row that the coin landed on heads. And finally the NFC’s 14-year winning streak on the coin toss came to an end Sunday. New York Giants special teams captain Zak DeOssie called tails — as he had all season — referee John Parry flipped the coin and it landed heads. The Patriots deferred to the second half and kicked off.

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(For what it’s worth, in the online vote at the Papa John’s Web site between Jan. 22 and Feb. 1, fans picked heads over tails 60 percent to 40 percent.)

Clearly bettors wanted to get ahead from the start as the No. 2 prop in terms of action on the game at WagerWeb was on Kelly Clarkson’s “National Anthem” and its length, which was set at 1:34 (apparently that was the length of Clarkson’s anthem at last year’s World Series). Rather amazingly, that’s exactly the number that Clarkson landed on, making it a push. The big lean was on the ‘over’. A year ago, Christina Aguilera's Super Bowl anthem came in a 1:54.

Super Bowl MVP is always a popular prop, with Giants quarterback Eli Manning taking home the award Sunday night for his second SB MVP trophy to go with his second ring. Tom Brady was the favorite but Eli wasn’t far behind, closing at +110. Surprisingly, neither Brady nor Manning took heavy action even though a quarterback has pretty much owned Super Bowl MVP honors. Manning’s MVP was the 25th by a quarterback and third straight. It was a good result for the book, which was exposed most on Giants defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul, wide receiver Mario Manningham and Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez.

That the Super Bowl scoring opened with a safety was a definite loss for the book. The Giants took a 2-0 lead in the first quarter because Brady was called for intentional grounding in the end zone at the 8:52 mark. It wasn't the first time a safety was the first score of a Super Bowl, by the way. It also happened in Super Bowl IX when Pittsburgh got one against Minnesota. Bettors were all over the first score of the game being a field goal or safety over a touchdown. The book did win in the regard that the biggest lean on that side was a Giants field goal opening the scoring. A safety or field goal as the first score went off at +150, with there being a safety at all in the game at +650. The first scoring play of the game being a Giants safety went off at a whopping +4000.

Giants receiver Victor Cruz scored the first touchdown of Super Bowl XLVI and that was a solid result for the book as the biggest lean was on teammate Manningham scoring the first touchdown.

As for the spread on the game, it opened at Patriots -3 and stayed there. During most of the two weeks, the money kept coming in on New York +3 (+125). The bets on the total came in on the over, which opened at 55 and went down to 53 at close.  By the Friday before kickoff things evened up with more action coming in on the Patriots, dropping the line to -3/+100 and -3/-105 at one point. By the start of the game the money was pretty even on straight bets and ‘if’ bets, while a little more action came in on the Patriots on parlays and more money came in on the Giants on teasers.