Imagine having a potential $736,000 payout resting on the Detroit Lions.
Not a position most people would want to be in.
Now, I love sports betting. Absolutely love it. I never really win much, but every once in awhile I’ll put a few bucks on a crazy longshot parlay just to see what happens. It’s paid off once for me and I won over a thousand bucks, but for the most part, most of my winnings are pretty small and come from bets with much better odds.
But one bettor decided to go big or go home and place a $25 bet on the moneyline for all 16 of the NFL games this past weekend.
If the unidentified bettor correctly predicted the winner for all 16 games, the winner would walk away with a cool $736,959.
And they almost pulled it off.
At the end of Sunday’s slate of games, the bettor was 15 for 16, with only the Monday night game between the Detroit Lions and the Green Bay Packers standing between them and three quarters of a million dollars.
Now if you know anything about online sports betting, you know that generally bettors have the option of cashing out a parlay before it’s complete to hedge their bets. So after getting 15 of 16 games right, most people would probably be scrambling to hit that “Cash Out” button and take the money, which at that point would have been around $133,000.
But this bettor had placed the $25 bet on the BetMGM app using a free bet credit – which means they didn’t have the option of cashing out.
Gotta think this person was sweating on Sunday night.
Then Monday Night Football rolled around and we all know what happened: The Packers let out their frustrations from their shit week 1 performance against the Saints by putting a thumping on the Lions to the tune of a 35-17 Packers win.
So whoever placed that insane parlay went from hero to zero real quick and was just shit out of luck – right?
Well, not exactly.
Turns out BetMGM had reached out to the bettor before the game and offered to break their terms and conditions by allowing them to cash out before Monday night’s game. Didn’t wanna risk having to pay out $736,000 I guess…
The bettor (smartly) decided to take the money, walking away with a nice little $133,000 (pre-tax) payday for picking the winners of the first 15 games. And with that, they avoided the heartbreak that would have come from letting it ride and hoping the Detroit Lions came through for them.
Because we all know how that would have ended.
Have I mentioned how much I love sports betting?
