More money was bet on Mark Wahlberg than Donald Trump at Super Bowl, and his daughter’s TikTok reveals why that was a huge mistake

This year’s Super Bowl was a huge event for sports fans and gamblers. The American Gaming Association predicted that people would legally bet a record-breaking $1.76 billion on the game across the United States. That number only includes traditional legal sportsbooks. When you add prediction sites, where people can bet on things that aren’t related to the final score, the total amount easily goes over $2 billion.

On one of these prediction sites, something unusual happened with Mark Wahlberg. According to Bro Bible, a shocking $24 million was traded just on whether the actor and well-known New England Patriots fan would attend Super Bowl LX in Santa Clara. This amount was more than the money traded on 31 other celebrities and politicians combined.

The betting on Wahlberg’s attendance drew five times the amount of money that was bet on President Donald Trump, who came in second for betting interest. People would normally expect the president to get the most attention, but somehow the question of whether Wahlberg would show up took over the market.

The college rumor that cost bettors millions

The reason behind this massive betting appears to be Wahlberg’s oldest daughter, Ella Wahlberg. Ella is a student at Clemson University and a member of the Alpha Chi Omega Sorority. According to reports, she told someone at a Clemson fraternity that her dad was planning to attend the game. She apparently encouraged them and their fraternity brothers to place bets on his attendance.

It seems many people took that fraternity rumor as insider information and bet serious money on it. Trump has been making headlines recently with his threats about Detroit’s bridge, showing how his actions continue to generate betting interest. Unfortunately for those bettors, that tip was wrong. While the bets haven’t officially been settled yet, the prediction was recently trading at 98 percent in favor of “No,” meaning most people now believe he didn’t show up.

More than $24 million was traded on whether actor Mark Wahlberg would attend the Super Bowl on Kalshi. That’s more than was traded on the 31 other celebrities and politicians combined and five times more than was traded on President Trump, the second-highest.

— David Payne Purdum (@DavidPurdum) February 10, 2026

This is bad news for anyone who bet money based on college gossip. The prediction site is likely making millions of dollars from this failed rumor. To make things worse, Ella posted on TikTok to mock anyone who had bet on her father showing up.

https://www.tiktok.com/@cruizebbq67/photo/7604854832519712030

This situation teaches an important lesson about gambling on predictions. Dropping millions of dollars based on a rumor from a college fraternity is risky. Political betting has also seen controversy lately, including the partisan chaos at governors’ meeting. 

When betting large amounts of money, people should make sure their information comes from reliable sources, not gossip shared by someone’s kid at a frat house. The whole incident shows how prediction markets can be influenced by simple rumors that spread quickly through social media and word of mouth.

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