National Football League

NFL Week 1 Big Bets Recap: Bettor wins 13k after wagering a dime on 5-leg parlay

Updated Sep. 16, 2024 9:57 a.m. ET

With the NFL season kicking off, there was a slew of major wagers dropping at sportsbooks across the country. And as no surprise, results were mixed for the high-roller bettors who ponied up big cash.

One of the largest reported bets in the NFL Week 1 odds market was a monster $300,000 play on Ravens moneyline +130 vs. the Chiefs. The wager was placed at DraftKings Sportsbook by Dave Portnoy, founder of Barstool Sports.

If Baltimore had won Thursday’s regular-season opener, then Portnoy would’ve profited $390,000, for a $690,000 total payout. But the Ravens fell 27-20 after an apparent final-seconds touchdown was overturned following a review. Isaiah Likely’s catch was nullified by perhaps one inch, as his toe was just barely out of bounds.

Let’s dive into more notable wagers and parlay winners from NFL Week 1 betting.

I Like Big Bets And I Cannot Lie

Portnoy’s bet wasn’t the only biggie in the Ravens-Chiefs showdown. At South Point sportsbook in Las Vegas, a customer put $220,000 on Baltimore to cover as a 3-point underdog.

Another South Point customer countered with a $110,000 play on Chiefs -2.5. That bettor left quite satisfied, banking a $100,000 win ($210,000 total payout), while the $220,000 Ravens wager went begging.

Other notable big bets from Week 1:

$250,000 Vikings moneyline -125 vs. Giants. Minnesota rolled 28-6, so the Caesars Sports bettor profited a healthy $200,000 ($450,000 total payout).
$135,000 Texans -2.5 vs. Colts (Caesars). Houston narrowly won 29-27, failing to cover.
$110,000 Packers +2.5 vs. Eagles (South Point). Green Bay falls short 34-29.
$55,000 Packers-Eagles Over 49 (South Point). The total easily cleared 49, so the bettor profited $50,000 ($105,000 total payout).

Then there were these two monsters from the same bettor at Caesars Sports. Both bets cashed on the final play of the Jaguars-Dolphins game.

The wager on Dolphins -2.5 (-151) — on which the bettor bought down the number from Miami -3.5 to -2.5 — netted a $200,000 profit ($502,000 total payout). The Miami moneyline -178 bet nabbed $100,000 in profit ($278,000 total payout).

Quite a way to win $300,000.

Parlay of the Year?

A DraftKings Sportsbook customer saw some of the most ridiculous ROI one could imagine on Sunday. The bettor put literally 10 cents on a five-leg parlay of first touchdown scorer in five games:

Lo and behold, each of those five players scored the first TD in their respective games. And the odds of that happening were a whopping +13721300 — or in a slightly more digestible format, 137213/1.

So that bet of one thin dime returned a profit of $13,721.30.

At FanDuel Sportsbook, a customer played a same-game parlay in Packers-Eagles of Jayden Reed Anytime Touchdown/Christian Watson, Anytime Touchdown/Saquon Barkley Two or More Touchdowns. The bet was for $25 at odds of +4808, so the customer rolled away with $1,202 in profit.

Speedy Payout

Let’s wrap it up with a standard straight bet on a unique market. A DraftKings customer put $20 on the Saints’ Shaheed +7500 to be the first TD scorer in any of Sunday’s games.

Shaheed hit paydirt just 2:52 into the Saints’ 47-10 home rout of Carolina. Derek Carr connected with Shaheed on a 59-yard pass play. So the bettor hit paydirt with a nifty $1,500 win.

Not a bad Sunday's worth of work, if you can get it.

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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