Big Bets Report: Bettor Misses $1.3 Million Payday After USA Hockey Wins Gold

There’s no doubt that the NFL drives the American sports betting bus. That’s where the bulk of action is, including plenty of major wagers and wild winners.

But there are still plenty of bets flowing elsewhere, now that the NFL season is over, perhaps on college basketball, the NBA, tennis and golf.

Or the NHL, where last week, a Caesars Sports customer turned a three-figure bet into a huge six-figure payday.

More on that winning wager, notable parlay hits and misses and other interesting plays as we recap betting from the past week or so.

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Huge Hockey Hit

Last week at Caesars, a customer put $500 on a nine-leg NHL parlay, spread across Wednesday and Thursday games.

The parlay had a nice balance of favorites and underdogs, be it on totals or the puckline — teams to either win by more than 1.5 goals or lose by less than 1.5 goals.

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Stunningly, all nine legs got to the finish line. At odds of about +83000 (830/1), the bet would’ve paid out approximately $415,000.

However, the bettor also utilized an escalator boost, which bolsters the odds with each leg that’s added to a parlay.

So instead of $415,000, the bettor walked away with an even more whopping $704,042.25.

Above-Par Bettor

At Fanatics Sportsbook, a customer dove into all three of the top professional golf tours last week. The bettor put a modest $10 on a three-leg parlay of each winner:

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Add all that up, and you’ve got massive long-shot odds of +207900 (2079/1).

Nico Echavarria shot 5 under in the final round to win the PGA Tour’s Cognizant Classic by two strokes. On the LPGA Tour, Hannah Green held off Auston Kim to win the HSBC Women’s World Championship by one shot.

And on the DP World Tour — formerly the European PGA Tour — Casey Jarvis claimed a three-shot win in the South African Open.

So that bettor’s 10 bucks turned into $20,790 in profit. Not a bad weekend’s worth of work.

Hockey and Hoops

At William Hill US last week, a customer strung together a parlay of six Tuesday NBA games and four Wednesday NHL matchups.

The goal: Turn $275 into half a million dollars.

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Just to remind: 10-leg parlays rarely if ever hit. Don’t get carried away, or you might get carried out.

But in this instance, all 10 selections got there. At odds of about +186500 (1865/1), the bettor won a whopping $512,982.52.

Olympic Hockey Winners and Losers

Team USA claimed gold in both men’s and women’s hockey, defeating Canada in the gold medal game in each instance. The men’s victory stung particularly hard for a BetMGM customer who was on the brink of a million-dollar win.

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As you can tell by the selections, this six-leg parlay — for an unusual amount of $426.63 — was made back in September. The first five legs were all in, once the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays in the World Series.

All that remained was sitting, waiting and hoping Canada won the men’s hockey gold medal. But the USA prevailed 2-1 in overtime, squelching the bettor’s hopes of winning nearly $1.3 million.

On the flip side, in women’s Olympic hockey, a DraftKings Sportsbook customer in Canada put a hefty $351,074.11 on Team USA -350 to win the gold medal.

The American women did so in thrilling fashion, tying Canada at 1 late in the third period, then winning 2-1 in overtime.

So the bettor banked a profit of $100,306.89 in Canadian dollars (total payout $451,381). Not a bad day, eh?

As with all major wagers, just a reminder: High-rollers have the means to take such risks and absorb potentially obscene losses. We normal people need to keep our expectations and wager sizes reasonable. Never bet more than you can afford to lose.