Some people drive to the nearest 7-Eleven to fill out a lottery ticket, hoping to turn a little into a lot.
Others do the sportsbook version of a lottery ticket: Open up an app on their phone, string together a handful of player props, then watch the NFL for a few hours and see if their parlay numbers are drawn.
That’s how it was for a DraftKings Sportsbook customer on Sunday, who took a few bucks and turned it into a healthy five figures.
More on that bet, along with major wagers and profitable parlays in NFL and college football betting this past weekend.
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Parlay Partay
Before Sunday’s NFL slate kicked off, a bettor compiled a six-leg player-prop parlay, spread across five games, all 1 p.m. ET kickoffs. The bet was for all of five dollars.
The props:
- Bills running back James Cook to score two or more touchdowns
- Eagles running back Saquon Barkley to score two or more TDs
- Dolphins running back De’Von Achane to score a TD
- 49ers tight end George Kittle to score a TD
- Jets running back Breece Hall to score two or more TDs
- Bengals running back Chase Brown to score two or more TDs
The first four legs got there with relative ease, before the fourth quarter of each game. Still needed: two touchdowns from Hall and one from Brown.
Hall found the end zone for New York in the first minute of the fourth quarter, pulling the Jets within seven points of Cincinnati. Four minutes later, Brown returned the favor with his second TD, giving the Bengals a 38-24 lead.
Then Hall sealed the deal with a 27-yard TD, as New York got within six with a 2-point conversion after Hall’s second score.
Add up all those odds, and you’ve got a hefty +452992, or in easier-to-digest terms, about 4,530/1. But the customer also utilized a 33% profit boost, hiking those odds to about 6,025/1.
That’s how a mere $5 becomes $30,129.05. You can’t argue with that kind of ROI.
In-Game Win Game
While the Chargers were on their seventh drive of Thursday night’s game against the Vikings, a FanDuel Sportsbook customer took a flier on how that possession would end.
The bettor put $100 on Chargers’ wideout Tre Harris +4000 to finish that drive with a touchdown. With 12:42 remaining in the game, Harris did so on a 6-yard reception from Justin Herbert.
In actual game time, that bet lasted just a couple of minutes. And the result was a $4,000 win, for a $4,100 total payout.
Here’s Hoping You Had It
It’s not all about making big bets or cashing out huge on 10-leg parlays — which, just to be clear, is rare. Sometimes it’s about putting 10 bucks on a single straight bet, backing a long shot or semi-long shot, and getting brilliant ROI.
With great wideouts and running backs available in the Jets-Bengals game, how about deciding that 40-year-old Cincy QB Joe Flacco was a good bet to score that game’s first touchdown?
Flacco was available for as much as +7500 to do so. With 5:35 left in the first quarter and with Cincinnati already up 3-0, Flacco pushed his way in from the 1-yard line.
If you’d just tossed 10 bucks on that, then you’d have an extra $750 in your bank account this morning.
Or, you could’ve included Flacco scoring the first TD on a modest parlay ticket …
Parlay Partay II
At FanDuel Sportsbook, a customer put all of $2.50 on Cleveland tight end Harold Fannin to score the first TD of the Browns-Patriots game, at +2000. That’s a pretty good rate of return on its own, although it would’ve netted just $50 in profit.
But then the bettor added in Flacco at +6000 to score the first TD in the Bengals-Jets game. Put those two TD scorer props together on a two-leg parlay, and you’ve got huge odds of 128000, or 1,280/1.
The Browns got rolled by the Patriots 32-13. However, 10 minutes into the first quarter, Cleveland took a 7-3 lead when Fannin scored on an 18-yard pass from Dillon Gabriel.
And as noted above, Flacco found paydirt at just about the same juncture as the first quarter against the Jets.
The bettor cashed out for $3,202.50. Not a bad day’s work for a two-leg, pocket-change parlay that settled well before the first quarter was over.
I Like Big Bets and I Cannot Lie
Usually, it’s the NFL seeing the bigger bets on any given football weekend. But some of the larger major wagers of this week landed on college football Week 9 odds.
At the top of the list: $165,000 on Iowa State -2.5 (-115) vs. BYU. And things were looking pretty good for this DraftKings customer late in the second quarter, when the host Cyclones held a 24-10 lead.
However, Iowa State scored only three more points the rest of the way, on a late-third-quarter field goal. Meanwhile, BYU added another 31 points to its total, capped by a Faletau Satuala 40-yard interception return for a touchdown.
Final score: BYU 41, Iowa State 27. So that bet became a healthy six-figure donation to the house.
More big bets from the weekend, from DraftKings:
- $50,000 Oklahoma -4.5 vs. Ole Miss. The favored Sooners lost outright 34-26.
- $50,000 Ravens -1.5 vs. Bears. Baltimore delivered in a 30-16 victory, and the bettor profited $45,454.55 (total payout $95,454.55).
- $40,000 Steelers moneyline +130 vs. Packers (DraftKings). The bettor needed a modest Pittsburgh upset and instead got a 35-25 Green Bay victory. So that’s a loser.
- $40,000 Bengals -6 (-112) vs. Jets. It was the Bengals’ game to win with 10 minutes left and a two-touchdown lead. But they couldn’t deliver, losing 39-38.
This week also brought a couple more examples of big moneyline bets on huge favorites. In those instances, the favorite doesn’t have to cover a point spread; it just has to win the game. But because of that, the payout is significantly less.
And heaven help you if there’s a major upset. It happens. Just think back to Penn State-UCLA a few weeks ago.
In this past weekend’s two cases, though, the bettors never had to sweat.
A DraftKings customer put $24,000 on the Colts moneyline -1200 vs. Titans. As those odds show, Indy was a hefty moneyline favorite. So while the bet won with the Colts’ 38-14 rout, the bettor profited just $2,000.
Indiana was a monster moneyline favorite of -3200 vs. UCLA. Think about that. To win $100, you’d have to wager $3,200.
A DraftKings bettor decided to go 10 times that wager, putting $32,000 on the Hoosiers. Thankfully for the bettor, Indiana hammered UCLA 56-6, for a profit of $1,000 (total payout $33,000).
As always, remember that these high-rollers can also afford to lose such bets. Keep your wagers and your expectations reasonable. Never bet more than you can afford to lose.
Patrick Everson is a sports betting analyst for FOX Sports and senior reporter for VegasInsider.com. He is a distinguished journalist in the national sports betting space. He’s based in Las Vegas, where he enjoys golfing in 110-degree heat. Follow him on Twitter: @PatrickE_Vegas.
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