The parlay heard ‘round the world landed on X (formerly known as Twitter) on Dec. 20.
All it needs to reach the finish line: Ohio State winning the 12-team College Football Playoff, which is hardly far-fetched. And the wager is arguably one of the most unimaginable you’ve ever seen: 85 cents on a 14-leg parlay.
It’s a mix of March Madness, the NBA All-Star Game, NBA, and NHL futures, along with UFC and boxing outcomes. It’s capped by college football’s national champion.
As the CFP begins, the first 13 legs are all in. The bettor only needed Ohio State to win it all: $147,507.44.
Unless the bettor first sold his ticket. Which he did.
He listed the parlay play on PropSwap and WagerWire, secondary marketplaces specializing in selling sports betting tickets. Think StubHub but for sports bets and typically for futures wagers and parlays.
The ticket sold on WagerWire for $16,750. That’s a phenomenal ROI on an 85-cent wager, and the new holder of the ticket still stands to net $130,000 or so, if Ohio State wins it all.
Even though PropSwap didn’t get the sale, founder and CEO Luke Pergande was still thoroughly impressed by the parlay ticket.
“It’s the best bet I’ve seen this year. Eighty-five cents buys literally nothing in this economy,” Pergande said.
Pocket-Change Parlay
Back on Feb. 12, a FanDuel Sportsbook customer, who perhaps had only 85 cents in his account, decided to utilize that couch-cushion money in the wildest possible way.
The parlay opened by taking the NBA All-Star Game Over, with a total of 363.5 points. That was one of the easiest legs, as the East beat the West 211-186, for 397 total points.
So the first leg was in. But 13 more legs to go? Seriously?
However, one by one, over the course of the next three months, the parlay remained alive.
Takuma Inoue scored a ninth-round knockout of Jerwin Ancajas in a WBA title bout on Feb. 24. Then UConn won the NCAA men’s basketball championship on April 8.
April 13 was a particularly key day, the end of the NBA regular season. Five legs of this bettor’s parlay hinged on division champions, and he hit them all:
- Milwaukee Bucks to win the Central Division
- Orlando Magic to win the Southeast Division
- Los Angeles Clippers to win the Pacific Division
- Dallas Mavericks to win the Southwest Division
- Oklahoma City to win the Northwest Division
There were some serious sweats on that portion of the parlay. Oklahoma City and Denver tied with straight-up (SU) wins at 57-25, but the Thunder won the tiebreaker. Milwaukee, Orlando, and Dallas won their respective divisions by one game.
Los Angeles finished two games ahead of Phoenix.
Hockey Night/Fight Nights
Then it was on to NHL division winners on April 15:
- New York Rangers to win the Metropolitan Division
- Vancouver Canucks to win the Pacific Division
Those were followed by a trio of favorable boxing outcomes. On April 21, Ryan Garcia — a +440 underdog — scored a majority-decision upset of WBC super lightweight champ Devin Haney.
In a May 12 IBF lightweight title fight, Vasyl Lomachenko earned a TKO against George Kambosos Jr. And on May 18, Oleksandr Usyk won a split decision vs. Tyson Fury in a battle for the undisputed heavyweight title.
That’s 13 legs.
Since then — seven months and counting — it’s been hurry-up-and-wait time. Ohio State is the final leg.
The Buckeyes thumped Tennessee 42-17 in the first round of the College Football Playoff.
Ohio State Buckeyes crush Tennessee: How impressive was their gameplan?
Three Games To Go
Granted, there’s still a considerable distance to travel. Ohio State is the No. 8 seed in the 12-team field. The Buckeyes now face No. 1 seed Oregon in the Rose Bowl for a Jan. 1 quarterfinal showdown.
That’s a rematch of a thrilling regular-season game. The Ducks were 3.5-point home underdogs and squeaked out a 32-31 win in Week 7.
If Ohio State wins the rematch as a 2.5-point favorite, Texas could be waiting in the semis at the Cotton Bowl. At the moment, Caesars Sports has Texas as the +270 favorite to win the National Championship, followed by the Buckeyes at +360 and Oregon at +375.
Then comes Penn State at +500 and Notre Dame and Georgia, both +550. Any of those three teams could await Ohio State in the championship game.
The original owner of that bet figured it was best to get out early. But the 14-leg parlay lives on for the person who made a $16,750 investment, hoping it turns into $147,507.44 on Jan. 20.
Buckle up for what might be a very entertaining ride.
More Potential Payouts
At DraftKings Sportsbook, three customers have significant parlay tickets tied to the College Football Playoff. Arguably, the most intriguing one is a $5 nine-leg parlay that has great potential.
The only remaining leg: Georgia to win the CFP title. If the Bulldogs get there, the bettor’s five bucks swell to $94,234. That’s insanely huge odds of +1884680, or in slightly shorter form, about 18847/1.
Then there’s a $35 five-leg parlay that only needs Penn State to finish it off. The odds are a hefty +464273 (about 4643/1), for a potential profit of $162,495.55.
Finally, there’s this juicy $500 five-leg parlay, but it still has two legs to go in order to win more than a million dollars:
- Boston Celtics -150 to win the NBA Finals
- Florida Panthers +210 to win the Stanley Cup
- Los Angeles Dodgers +300 to win the World Series
- Texas +700 to win the College Football Playoff
- Detroit Lions +1200 to win the Super Bowl
Add it all up, and you’ve got long odds of +214833, or in shorter form, 2148/1. If the Longhorns and Lions survive, the bettor will profit $1.074 million.
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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