2024: A Year of Unbelievable Bets and Record-Breaking Wagers
As we wrap up 2024, it’s clear that the world of sports betting has reached new heights, with American sportsbooks on track to handle an estimated $130 billion in bets, marking an impressive 8% increase from the previous year. This surge in betting activity has been fueled by a series of unforgettable events and jaw-dropping wagers that have captivated the attention of bettors and sports enthusiasts alike.
One of the standout moments of the year was the Super Bowl, where the Kansas City Chiefs once again emerged victorious in an overtime thriller. This game was the most heavily bet single event of 2024, according to sportsbooks. But it wasn’t just football that drew in the crowds; a sanctioned boxing match between 27-year-old Jake Paul and 58-year-old Mike Tyson shattered records for the amount wagered on a fight.
In the realm of basketball, the Boston Celtics and Dallas Mavericks were the most popular teams among bettors at ESPN BET, while Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce proved to be a costly choice for many, with bettors losing more money on him than any other player at BetMGM.
Among the year’s most astonishing betting stories was an 85-cent “all I had left in my account” bet from February that sold last week for five figures. Additionally, a 19-leg college football parlay came down to a nail-biting 2-point conversion, and a bettor in Kentucky placed one of the largest bets ever reported on an NFL regular-season game. However, the wildest wager of 2024 took place on a seemingly ordinary Saturday night in November.
2024’s Wildest Bet: Two Shots for Glory
On November 9, the NBA’s four-game slate was devoid of marquee matchups and star power. Yet, one bettor found an opportunity amidst the ordinary. After exploring the betting options at FanDuel, they placed a $5 two-leg parlay featuring the Utah Jazz‘s Walker Kessler and the Brooklyn Nets’ Dorian Finney-Smith. The bet was for each player to score the first baskets in their respective games and specified how they would do it.
FanDuel offers odds on various methods of scoring the first basket: a dunk, free throw, layup, 3-pointer, and “other,” which includes floaters and midrange jumpers. The outcome is determined by the NBA’s play-by-play scoring.
Kessler opened the scoring against the San Antonio Spurs with a 3-foot jump-hook, while Finney-Smith hit a one-handed floater from just outside the paint on the baseline, cashing in the parlay. The odds for this parlay were a staggering 22,700-1, resulting in a payout of $113,500. The bettor, however, could not be reached for comment.
An Epic 85-Cent All-In Parlay
On the morning after the Super Bowl, a 26-year-old construction worker and longtime sports bettor in Baltimore found himself with just 85 cents left in his FanDuel account. Inspired by a friend’s picks, he decided to go all-in on a 14-leg, multisport parlay with +173,000-1 odds that wouldn’t be resolved until January 2025.
The bet began with Over 363.5 points in the NBA All-Star Game and included seven division winners in the NBA and NHL, four boxing matches, UConn winning the men’s college basketball national championship, and concluded with Ohio State to win the College Football Playoff.
The bettor, who goes by @unitmetric on X (formerly Twitter), shared with ESPN, “I tailed that bet from my friend. All the NBA bets on the slip are strictly from him. He got the NHL plays from our group chat. He loved Ohio State for the [championship] since the beginning of the year.”
With Ohio State facing No. 1 Oregon in a College Football Playoff quarterfinal on New Year’s Day, the Buckeyes are the last remaining leg on the ticket, which could pay out $147,507.44.
Throughout the year, he considered cashing out early, especially before the May 18 heavyweight bout between Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury, when FanDuel offered $7,000. “I thought [Usyk] had a pretty good chance to win and had some money hedged the other way but not enough to cover the cashout of $7K at the time,” he explained.
Usyk’s split-decision victory kept the parlay alive, and by November, after Ohio State’s loss to Michigan, he began exploring online secondary markets to sell the parlay. On December 20, the ticket sold for $16,750 on WagerWire, just before Ohio State’s playoff game against Tennessee, which they won 42-17.
The ticket was purchased by a bettor in their late 20s, known as @thecast123454 on X. “OSU was a pretty good investment,” the buyer told ESPN. “I purchased the ticket at implied odds in the mid +700s. By the day of the [Tennessee] game, the market had pushed back a bit against OSU, so on game day, I believed my edge was 1-2%, whereas before game day, I believed my edge was 2-3%.”
He added, “I did give a small piece of the ticket to a very successful gambler and finance professional who has a much bigger bankroll than me. The fact that he wanted the piece that I offered him did make me feel a bit better about my purchase.”
🚨💰$0.85 CENT PARLAY SOLD FOR $16,750!💰🚨@unitmetric turned $0.85 into an epic 14-leg parlay with +17 MILLION odds (+17353716). With 13 legs hitting, the final leg hinges on Ohio State Football winning the College Football Playoff
After a rollercoaster few weeks, he sold the… pic.twitter.com/1wI4mMQEhU
— WagerWire (@WagerWire) December 21, 2024
Settling for $279,000
In another remarkable story, the biggest long-shot bet to hit at ESPN BET in 2024 was a 19-leg college football parlay with +11,635,957 odds. This bet came down to a 2-point conversion on the final Saturday of the regular season.
The wager, placed by an ESPN BET customer in New York, was a $2.47 bet to win over $500,000. It included 18 favorites and one underdog, Michigan against Ohio State, and ended with BYU -12 against Houston.
Unfortunately, the Cougars failed on a 2-point conversion after their last touchdown, resulting in a 30-18 win for BYU. This caused the leg to push, shortening the odds to approximately 116,359-1, and the bettor settled for $279,262.97.
Betting by the Numbers: 2024 in Review
- $56.27: Ahead of the NFL draft, a bettor with DraftKings placed an $11,255.25 bet on USC quarterback Caleb Williams being the No. 1 overall pick at -20,000 odds. The bettor won a net $56.27 after the Chicago Bears selected Williams No. 1.
- $3.1 million: A bettor in Kentucky with Circa Sports placed a $3.1 million money-line bet on the heavily favored Philadelphia Eagles (-700) to beat the Carolina Panthers. Circa owner Derek Stevens told ESPN it was the largest bet the company had ever taken, and it would come down to the wire. The Panthers, trailing 22-16, drove into Eagles’ territory late in the fourth quarter. Quarterback Bryce Young appeared to connect with receiver Xavier Legette on a 32-yard pass to the goal line, but the pass was ruled incomplete. Replays showed the ball slipping through Legette’s hands and hitting the turf. A touchdown would have tied the score with a go-ahead extra point pending and 45 seconds to play. Philadelphia survived, and the bettor won a net $442,857 off the $3.1 million wager.
- 300-1: Tampa Bay Buccaneers reserve running back Sean Tucker scored two touchdowns against the New Orleans Saints in an Oct. 13 game. Tucker’s odds were 300-1 to score multiple touchdowns, the longest odds of any successful NFL player prop this season at ESPN BET.
- 3.4%: Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani attracted 3.4% of all player prop bets at ESPN BET in 2024, the most of any player in any of the four major professional sports leagues in the U.S.
- 19,000: In April, U.S. federal authorities alleged that Ippei Mizuhara, the interpreter for Ohtani, placed approximately 19,000 bets with an illegal bookmaker from Dec. 2021 to January 2024. The bets ranged from $10 to $160,000, according to the criminal complaint. Mizuhara lost a net $41 million on his wagers, according to the complaint.
- $130 billion: American sportsbooks are on pace to take more than $130 billion bets in 2024, up approximately 8% from last year.
- $80.9 million: Nevada sportsbooks won a net $80.9 million in September, the most lucrative single month in the state’s history of accepting bets.
- $17.9 million: Approximately $17.9 million was bet on table tennis in September with Colorado sportsbooks, a new record high for the state.
- $1.12 million: On March 20, a bettor with DraftKings placed an $80,000 six-leg parlay with a $1.12 million payout on the Toronto Raptors‘ home game against the Sacramento Kings. Each leg of the parlay was on the under on six statistics for Jontay Porter, a reserve forward for the Raptors. Porter, claiming illness, asked to be removed from the game after playing approximately four minutes. He finished with no points, three rebounds, and an assist. The ticket would’ve been winners, except an NBA investigation later found Porter had conspired with gamblers to manipulate his performance in the game against the Kings. He later would plead guilty to conspiracy charges and be banned from the league.
- $1 million: A bettor in Michigan with Caesars Sportsbook wagered $1,000,000 on Jake Paul (-220) to beat Mike Tyson in their sanctioned boxing match in November. Paul won by unanimous decision, and the bettor won a net $454,000.
- $100,000: In February, a bettor with BetMGM placed a $100,000 bet on the Super Bowl coin flip landing “heads.” Winner.
- $200: On Nov. 29, ahead of Week 9 of the NFL season, a bettor in Nevada placed a $200 bet on the New England Patriots to win the Super Bowl at 5,000-1 odds with Caesars Sportsbook. The bet would pay out a net profit of $1 million should the Patriots go all the way. Two days later, New England lost to the Indianapolis Colts and were eliminated from the playoffs.
A bettor in Nevada placed $200 on the Patriots (+500000) to win Super Bowl LIX at the Caesars Superdome 😮
Potential win: $1,000,000 pic.twitter.com/myE7M0OCuf
— Caesars Sportsbook & Casino (@CaesarsSports) November 30, 2024
*ESPN staff writer Doug Greenberg contributed to this story.
Originally Written by: David Purdum
