Big Bets Report: Bettor Miraculously Turns $30 Parlay Into $2 Million

As the cliché goes: Parlays are a bookmaker’s best friend. 

And there’s an ocean of losing bets to prove it.

For every leg a bettor adds, the chance of winning significantly diminishes. And winning millions? Well, that never happens.

Except on the extremely rare occasion when it does, as it did Friday night for a Hard Rock Bet customer who turned 30 bucks into nearly $2 million.

More on that monster payday, along with how 10 cents became $3,500 and other notable wagers, as we recap the week that was in sports betting.

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Home Run Derby

At 7:04 a.m. ET Friday, a Floridian playing on Hard Rock Bet’s mobile app decided to string together six players to hit at least one home run apiece, in Friday night’s MLB games.

A couple of players were usual suspects: the Phillies’ Bryce Harper (+475) and the A’s Nick Kurtz (+325). The rest of the ticket:

• Riley Greene +475 (Tigers)
• Jazz Chisholm Jr. +550 (Yankees)
• Jesus Sanchez +700 (Blue Jays)
• Coby Mayo +800 (Orioles)

Add up all those odds, and you’ve got a lottery-style number of +6576031. In slightly more digestible terms, that equates to just beyond 65760/1. 

A 1-in-65,760 chance.

Yet it happened.

Kurtz homered to lead off the first inning against the Rangers. Sanchez also went yard in the first inning against the Blue Jays. Greene’s homer was in the second inning against the Tigers, and Chisholm went deep in the fourth inning against the Astros.

The biggest sweats: Harper and Mayo homering in the fifth inning, vs. the Braves and Red Sox, respectively.

And that, incredibly, is how a modest $30.11 becomes $1.98 million. 

When the massive windfall ticket was reported on X on Saturday, there were skeptics all over the replies, screaming that the bet was fake.

It got to the point where Hard Rock Bet’s own post on the win got a Community Note.

By Sunday morning, that Community Note was gone. The wager was absolutely legit, as Hard Rock Bet Senior Vice President, Sportsbook Neil Walsh enthusiastically acknowledged.

"We’re jazzed up over this slip. It’s one of the highest-odds parlays that we’ve ever paid out — with only six legs — and the smallest-ever stake that’s minted a million-dollar payout," Walsh said. "We’ve handled some massive winners, but this one knocked it out of the park.

"It’s an all-timer. Send this ticket to Cooperstown."

Big Dollars on a Dime

Parlays on home-run hitters seem to be the preference at the moment. And to bettors’ credit, they’re often keeping the wager size quite reasonable, as pretty much all of us should when it comes to parlays.

In one case last week, a FanDuel Sportsbook customer utilized just about the smallest bet possible, 10 cents. And in fact, it was a bonus bet — so basically, a 10-cent free ride.

I’m not sure how one even acquires a 10-cent bonus bet. But if you have one, crafting a seven-leg long-shot parlay isn’t a bad idea at all.

The ticket included two same-game parlays, which comprised five of the seven legs. That helped hike the odds out to a hefty +3548119, or just beyond 35481/1.

Yet all seven legs got there, turning one thin dime — and a free one at that — into $3,548.12. That’s an ROI that anyone can appreciate.

Six-Figure Feast

To be clear, making 21-leg parlay bets is an excellent way to separate you from your money. Even making three- or four-leg parlays regularly will have the same effect.

So just understand that before punching in more and more legs.

Last Wednesday, a Fanatics Sportsbook customer just kept pressing the button, ultimately stringing together 21 legs across a bundle of sports: European basketball and soccer, MLB, NHL and a dozen outcomes tied to the NBA.

Almost every leg was a favorite on the $500 ticket. Many selections were huge favorites, including Magic forward Franz Wagner -1300 to score 11 or more points vs. the Pistons in Game 2 of an NBA playoff series.

By late evening, Wagner’s output was all that remained. And he barely got there.

Wagner hit two free throws with 8:05 remaining, for his 11th and 12th points of the game, and he scored no more after that.

But that’s all it took to complete the parlay, for a huge win of $362,070 (total payout $362,570). Not the most orthodox way to earn such money. As they say, though, it’s sometimes better to be lucky than good.

Laser Beam

Among the MLB offerings from FanDuel this season is the Laser Beam. It involves wagering on a player to hit a home run with an exit velocity of 110 mph or more.

On Wednesday’s slate, a bettor put $5 on a three-leg parlay of the A’s Nick Kurtz (+700), the White Sox’s Munetaka Murakami (+1900) and the Orioles’ Coby Mayo (+5000) to hit high-velocity homers.

The odds: +815900, or 8159/1.

All three players delivered lasers, and the customer’s five bucks turned into $40,800.

The Name Game

Doing parlays for fun, rather than expecting a huge hit, is a good way to go. A pair of FanDuel customers did just that on Sunday.

One bettor decided to base a $25 three-leg wager on athletes named Nathan:

• Reds first baseman Nathan Lowe to homer
• Cardinals outfielder Nathan Church to homer
• Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon to score a goal

The odds of all three events happening were +11630, or just beyond 116/1. All three indeed delivered, turning $25 into $2,932.65.

The other bettor banked on Sunday being the Lord’s Day. 

The customer wagered accordingly on the Blue Jays’ Jesus Sanchez, the Astros’ Christian Walker and the Cardinals’ Nathan Church to homer.

All three players went yard. At odds of +23714 (about 237/1), a five-dollar bill became $1,190.70. 

Divine intervention.

50 Cents To $500

Finally, during Sunday night’s Celtics vs. 76ers Game 4, Fanatics offered live Over/Under points scored props on 13 players. One customer decided: Why not put all 13 into a live same-game parlay?

The bettor wagered the extremely responsible sum of 50 cents, at odds of +100000, or 1000/1.

All 13 legs came through, turning those two quarters into $500. Not a bad couple of hours worth of work.