American sportsbooks are on pace to handle an estimated $130 billion in bets in 2024, up approximately 8% from the previous year.
The Super Bowl, an overtime thriller won again by the Kansas City Chiefs, was the most-heavily bet single game of 2024, sportsbooks say, and a sanctioned boxing match between 27-year-old Jake Paul and 58-year-old Mike Tyson set betting records for the amount wagered on a fight. The Boston Celtics and Dallas Mavericks attracted more bets than any team in any sport in 2024 at ESPN BET, and bettors lost more money betting on Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce than any other player at BetMGM.
An 85-cent “all I had left in my account” bet from February sold last week for five figures. A 19-leg college football parlay on the final week of the season came down to a 2-point conversion, and, in December, a bettor in Kentucky placed one of the largest bets ever reported on an NFL regular-season game. But our pick for wildest wager of 2024 took place on a Saturday night in November.
2024’s wildest bet: Two shots for glory
The NBA’s four-game slate on Nov. 9 lacked marquee matchups and star power. After surveying the betting options at FanDuel, a bettor landed on a $5 two-leg parlay featuring the Utah Jazz’s Walker Kessler and the Brookyln Nets’ Dorian Finney-Smith. They bet on Walker and Finney-Smith to each score the first baskets in their respective games and how they would do it.
FanDuel offers odds on several methods of scoring when wagering on the first basket of a game: a dunk, free throw, layup, 3-pointer and “other,” which covers things such as floaters and midrange jumpers. It’s all determined by how the NBA records the basket in its 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 to cash the parlay. The parlay’s odds: 22,700-1. It paid $113,500.
The bettor could not be reached for comment.
An epic 85-cent all-in parlay
It was the morning after the Super Bowl, around 10 a.m. ET, Monday, Feb. 12 in Baltimore. A 26-year-old construction worker and longtime sports bettor has 85 cents left in his FanDuel account. Intrigued by his buddy’s picks, he elects to go all-in — on a 14-leg, multisport parlay with +173,000-1 odds that wouldn’t be decided until January 2025.
The bet opened with Over 363.5 points in the NBA All-Star Game. It had seven division winners in the NBA and NHL, alongside four boxing matches, UConn winning the men’s college basketball national championship and concluded with Ohio State to win the College Football Playoff.
“I tailed that bet from my friend,” the bettor — who asked to be referred to as @unitmetric, his username on X (formerly Twitter) — told ESPN in a direct message. “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.”
The Buckeyes, who face No. 1 Oregon in a College Football Playoff quarterfinal on New Year’s Day, are all that remains on the ticket that would pay out $147,507.44.
He considered taking the sportsbook’s early cashout offers several times, especially ahead of the May 18 heavyweight bout between Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury. FanDuel was offering $7,000 to cashout at the time.
“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 said.
Usyk won a split-decision, and the parlay, at +17,353,716 odds, was down to its last leg entering the college football season.
In November, after Ohio State lost to Michigan, he began trying to sell the parlay on online secondary markets that allow pending bets to be bought and sold. The ticket sold for $16,750 on online market WagerWire on Dec. 20, ahead of Ohio State’s opening playoff game against Tennessee. The Buckeyes beat the Volunteers 42-17.
🚨💰$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
The biggest long-shot bet to hit at ESPN BET in 2024 — a 19-leg college football parlay at +11,635,957 odds — came down to a 2-point conversion that would’ve doubled the payout on the final Saturday of the regular season.
The bet: $2.47 to win over $500,000, placed by an ESPN BET customer in New York. The legs included 18 favorites and one underdog, Michigan against Ohio State, and ended with BYU -12 against Houston.
The Cougars failed on a 2-point conversion after their last touchdown of the game, BYU won 30-18, causing the leg to push. If the Cougars had covered the spread, the parlay would’ve paid out more than $500,000. Instead, the push shortened 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 a $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 will 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.
