One canny punter has taken a free bet and turned it into a colossal $269,000 (£220,000) win courtesy of a sublime show of betting.
The unnamed individual was handed the $500 free wager by American firm BetMGM, and he set about putting together a huge 53,800/1 treble.
He backed the three teams he thought would be crowned the NFL, NBA and NHL champions….and he got it absolutely spot on!
The Arsenal billionaire Stan Kroenke may not have enjoyed success with the Gunners in 2021/22, but three other sports teams he owns – the Los Angeles Rams, the Colorado Avalanche and the Colorado Mammoth – all came up trumps by winning their national championships.
Our plucky punter backed two of them – the Rams and the Avalanche – plus the Golden State Warriors to win the NBA Championship, and he racked up a win that would back him almost a quarter of a million pounds.
A @BetMGM bettor used a $500 free bet on a three-team parlay with the Rams winning the Super Bowl, the Warriors winning the NBA title and the Avalanche to win the Stanley Cup.
The parlay paid $269,000. pic.twitter.com/XaSeOq8wrI
— David Payne Purdum (@DavidPurdum) June 27, 2022
Here’s the tale of the tape as the eye-watering 53,800/1 long shot landed….
February 2022 – Los Angeles Rams (Super Bowl LVI)
The Los Angeles Rams started the 2021/22 NFL season as the fourth favourites to win the Super Bowl, with odds of +1200 – or 12/1 in fractional terms – available.
They finished fourth in the NFC Conference, and that was enough to secure them the fourth seed spot in the play-offs.
The Rams endured a nervy run through the post-season, and two of their victories were by a margin of just three points – including the NFC Championship game against the San Francisco 49ers.
The Super Bowl contest could not have been any closer too, with the Cincinnati Bengals ahead going into the dying embers of the game.
But with 1:25 left on the clock, Cooper Kupp managed to cross into the end zone for a touchdown, and a successful kick followed to hand Rams yet another three-point victory, this time 23-20.
June 2022 – Golden State Warriors (NBA Finals)
The Golden State Warriors are one of the most prolific winners of the NBA title in the past decade or so, and the bookmakers made them one of the more likely outfits to repeat the feat in 2022.
Amazingly, the Warriors didn’t even win their mini division, but they did enough to clinch a play-off spot and cool the worries of our plucky punter.
Into the post-season and the Warriors enjoyed a fairly peaceful passage into the NBA Finals, but they found themselves 1-2 down in a race to four against the Boston Celtics.
But marshalled by legendary coach Steve Kerr, the San Francisco franchise found a way and rattled off three wins in a row to take the series 4-2.
June 2022 – Colorado Avalanche (Stanley Cup)
You have to admire the courage of our heroic bettor – the Colorado Avalanche hadn’t won the Stanley Cup for more than two decades.
But our punter clearly saw something in them, and they got off to an excellent start by winning the Western Conference.
They romped through the play-offs, winning two of their series by a 4-0 margin, before running into the back-to-back champions Tampa Bay Lightning in the Stanley Cup game.
Underdogs? Who cares. The Avalanche went 2-0 and then 3-1 up in the best-of-seven series, before wrapping up the win 4-2 in Florida – making our plucky punter very happy indeed and considerably richer.