Sports betting: Is it skill or luck? While the obvious answer is “a little bit a both,” one FanDuel customer leaned heavily into the luck category while winning an insane 11-leg parlay on April 29.
Now, we need to address the elephant in the room: You can go poor in a hurry trying to hit three-leg parlays, let alone an 11-teamer. These are lottery tickets in the form of betslips, and anyone who expects these longshots to cash as part of a legitimate betting strategy … probably shouldn’t be betting.
However, this fortuitous bettor found their pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, turning $33.33 into a whopping $32,271.74 payday at FanDuel Sportsbook.
Talk about incredible: This bettor started with (maybe) enough dough for dinner for two at Chilis and finished with a full cash offer on a Jeep Wrangler thanks to +96,724 odds.
Almost as impressive as the profit was how the parlay was structured: Five MLB sides, five NHL sides, and a (seemingly) random NBA player/team same-game prop at a huge plus-price. See for yourself:
The $33 To $32,271.74 Winning Parlay Ticket
𝗦𝗜𝗠𝗣𝗟𝗬 𝗜𝗡𝗖𝗥𝗘𝗗𝗜𝗕𝗟𝗘 🤯🤯🤯
This bettor turned $33.33 into THIRTY-TWO THOUSAND on one of the best cross-sport parlays you'll ever see (from Friday) 🤑
(via @DARayborn1) pic.twitter.com/GHQBCHnM8L
— FanDuel Sportsbook (@FDSportsbook) May 1, 2022
Of the 10 MLB and NHL bets, all were favorites except one: The Winnipeg Jets (+122), who handled their business with a 3-1 victory over the Flames.
Sweating Memphis
The last leg of the cross-sport parlay was the obvious shocker, as the bettor tied a Memphis Grizzlies playoff victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves to a prop on the Grizzlies’ Desmond Bane to make at least five 3-pointers during the game. (Yep, a parlay inside of a parlay — how meta!)
The same-game parlay was a tough ask, and the +340 odds reflected that. Sure enough, “tough ask” moved to “darn-near-impossible” when Memphis entered the fourth quarter trailing by double digits. However, the Grizzlies ended up outscoring Minnesota 40-22 in the fourth quarter, prevailing 114-106 and taking the best-of-7 series in six games. More remarkably, Bane connected on exactly five shots from downtown (on eight attempts), giving this lucky bettor a 1000x payout on his initial investment.
Don’t Try This at Home
Without talking to the individual who placed the wager, it’s impossible to know what their plus/minus sports betting ledger looks like in the grand scheme of things. Was this a one-off parlay that luckily hit? Or did this bettor spend thousands upon thousands on losing parlays before finally nailing one?
That’s what you need to keep in mind when sportsbooks — purely for PR purposes — post these beyond-long-shot winners on social media.
Parlays can be fun, but they probably shouldn’t be the foundation of your overall betting strategy. View them as lottery tickets: You can turn a little into a lot, but don’t bank on winning very often. And remember: The chances of cashing a parlay reduce significantly with each leg added to the ticket — unless, of course, you throw a totally random Desmond Bane 3-point prop into the mix.
