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“Even when I was little, I was big.”

— William Perry

The first prop bet

Michael Lewis dates the beginning of betting on everything to 1985 when Caesars Palace offered 20-1 odds on William “Refrigerator” Perry scoring a touchdown in the Super Bowl.

He did — a one-yard rumble into the end zone — and Caesars lost at least $250,000 on the bet (a substantial sum in an era when bettors had to call Las Vegas by phone to place wagers).

That was the first known “proposition” bet — a bet on anything other than the score or result of a game, and as such, the primordial…

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