National Football League

NFL Week 3 Big Bets Recap: $1 million bet on Chiefs cashes; 11-leg parlay hits

Updated Sep. 23, 2024 4:31 p.m. ET

NFL Week 3 odds generated plenty of intriguing bets, including a few of those always popular bet-a-little-to-win-a-lot parlays.

You know, lottery ticket parlays.

Under normal circumstances, when someone turns a dollar into $3,100, that would be the headline. And that actually happened on Sunday.

But when someone is willing to pony up $1 million on a bet, well, that has to take precedence. And such was the case at Caesars Sports.

Let’s dive into that major wager, along with other notable bets and parlay winners from NFL Week 3 and college football Week 4 betting.

I Like Big Bets And I Cannot Lie

A customer rolled into Caesars Palace here in Las Vegas and put a million dollars on the Kansas City Chiefs' moneyline -175 vs. the Atlanta Falcons. Simply put, the bettor needed the Chiefs to just win, not cover the 3-point spread in the Sunday night game.

The bettor got a really good sweat, no question, as Atlanta twice drove into the red zone late in the game, only to come away fruitless. That allowed K.C. to hold on for a 22-17 victory.

So the bettor profited a hefty $571,429, for a total payout of $1,571,429.

Not bad work if you can get it, right?

Other big NFL plays this weekend:

$110,000 Ravens-Cowboys Under 48 (Caesars Sports). Ravens win 28-25 (53 total points), so that’s a loser.
$55,000 Rams +6.5 vs. 49ers (Caesars). L.A. wins outright 27-24. Bettor profits $50,000 (total payout $105,000).
$55,000 Dolphins +4.5 vs. Seahawks (Caesars). Seattle wins and covers easily, 24-3.
$55,000 Patriots +6.5 vs. Jets (DraftKings Sportsbook). New York also wins and covers easily, 24-3.
$44,000 Jets -6 vs. Patriots (Caesars). As noted above, Jets roll, and the bettor profits $40,000 (total payout $84,000)
$30,000 Saints -2.5 (-120) vs. Eagles (Caesars). Philly wins 15-12.

Those bets notwithstanding, Beau Rivage sportsbook manager Carl Johnson said he noticed a significant dip in major wagers from NFL Week 2 to NFL Week 3. The reason why, in his opinion: a great Week 2 for the books, and correspondingly, a rough Week 2 for bettors.

"This was actually the slowest Sunday of the year. We wiped them out last week," Johnson said Sunday night, from his perch at the BetMGM sportsbook in Biloxi, Miss. "We didn’t take anything over $20,000, as opposed to last week, when we had several wagers of $200,000-plus."

Malik Willis, Packers shine in dominant win over Will Levis, Titans

Parlay Partay

OK, on to the fine people who successfully bet a little to win a lot this week.

A FanDuel Sportsbook customer put $1 on a parlay of Giants wideout Malik Nabers/Eagles running back Saquon Barkley/Colts running back Jonathan Taylor/Ravens running back Derrick Henry to each score two or more touchdowns.

The odds of that happening were +316700 — or, in more easily digestible form, 3167/1. But all four players recorded two TDs, so the bettor turned that meager dollar into $3,168.

DraftKings Sportsbook paid out on an unusual two-leg player prop: quarterback Bo Nix to score the Broncos’ first TD/QB Malik Willis to score the Packers’ first TD. The bet was for $2 at +35900 odds (359/1).

So the bettor pocketed $718 in profit.

Another DraftKings customer strung together four underdogs in a moneyline parlay and cashed out nicely. The bettor took three of Week 3’s bigger underdogs — Broncos, Giants and Panthers — along with the Eagles to all win outright.

The $100 bet was at odds of +6552, so the bettor profited $6,552.

San Francisco 49ers wideout Jauan Jennings’ big day paid big for a FanDuel customer. The bettor put $10 on Jennings +18000 (180/1) to score three or more TDs, and Jennings got three. So the bettor profited $1,800.

Another Jennings bet, in this case a two-leg parlay at FanDuel, turned five bucks into nearly $1,100.

And how about this play in the Patriots-Jets Thursday night game: A FanDuel customer wagered $10 on an 11-leg, first-quarter, single-game parlay. All 11 legs stunningly hit, turning that 10 bucks into $5,395.

No Sure Thing

We’ll wrap up this week with some college football. This isn’t about a bet, per se, but it was certainly a big loser for North Carolina.

The Tar Heels took it in the shorts in more ways than one Saturday. James Madison came to Chapel Hill and hung a 70-burger on North Carolina.

The Tar Heels were 10.5-point favorites and were -430 on the moneyline, but lost outright 70-50. Props to anyone who took the Dukes +350 on the moneyline, where a $100 bet would’ve profited $350 ($450 total payout).

Worse still for Carolina, the school paid James Madison $500,000 to take the game. Ouch.

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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