
Today, sports betting is one of the most exciting pastimes. Thanks to today’s highly advanced online gambling portals, bettors receive access to loads of events and bet types, from ordinary to quite bizarre. Although betting itself may fully captivate gamblers, it lures most of them with the ability to win money.

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Can this money be huge, however? Let’s view the largest sporting bets ever won to find the answer. We’ll also gather the most effective approaches used by the top winners so that everyone can try to repeat their success.
Top Winners and Their Amazing Strategies
Bookmakers offer myriads of possibilities to wager on sports and win. Many sportsbook platforms represent instant withdrawal casinos that can serve as trusted advisors. Such sites provide correct, pretty informative odds; sometimes, it’s enough to examine them to pick your sure-win events.
Yet, most experts would tell you that winning huge amounts of money from sports betting requires a less simplistic approach. Are they right? What strategies bring jackpot-like payouts? Let’s track several enormous wins that happened in the newest sports betting history.
Risk $20,000 to Hit $560,000
Placing a packet on a single sporting event may seem ridiculous, but what if you are plumb-certain about your team’s victory? That was the exact case of Phil Mickelson, maybe not the most famous golfer in New Zealand but quite a recognizable athlete in the US. He wagered $20,000 on an Outright event to happen in 2001. Outrights are special options from Bookmakers that allow you to bet on distant-future events.
Phil Mickelson is also famed for his love for gambling and American football. He bet on the Baltimore Ravens to win the NFL Super Bowl XXXV, and it happened. Thus, Mr. Mickelson’s win was $560,000.
Believe in Your Son and Win £100,000
Another amazing occurrence was when Gerry Mcllroy decided to bet on his son Rory. At that moment, Rory Mcllroy was taking the first steps in his professional Golf career. He was 15 years old at the time. However, his father never doubted his son’s future in big-time sports.
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He wagered £200 on a pretty weird market given on Golf by bookmakers in the 1990s. That is, Rory McLlroy, a youngster from Northern Ireland, ought to win the British Open within the following 10 years to let his father win his bet. The odds were 500 to 1. So, as soon as Rory McLlroy won the oldest and one of the most respectable golf championships in the world in 2014, his father gained £100,000.
Minute Bets on Accumulators to Win Big
If asked, any bettor would tell you that combined bets or accumulators are the riskiest options on the list. However, they offer wins more frequently than you might believe. An illustrative example is a miraculously small bet of £0.30 placed by Mick Gibbs on a Football accumulator, which let him grab a £500,000 prize.

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He wagered £200 on a pretty weird market given on Golf by bookmakers in the 1990s. That is, Rory McLlroy, a youngster from Northern Ireland, ought to win the British Open within the following 10 years to let his father win his bet. The odds were 500 to 1. So, as soon as Rory McLlroy won the oldest and one of the most respectable golf championships in the world in 2014, his father gained £100,000.
Minute Bets on Accumulators to Win Big
If asked, any bettor would tell you that combined bets or accumulators are the riskiest options on the list. However, they offer wins more frequently than you might believe. An illustrative example is a miraculously small bet of £0.30 placed by Mick Gibbs on a Football accumulator, which let him grab a £500,000 prize.
The acca bet included a couple of matches in the Champion League (Season 2001.) If you think that that was a unique case in Mr. Gibbs’s betting history, you are wrong. He got one more massive win by placing a £2.50 wager on nine events in various football leagues across Europe in 1999. The result was 157,000 won.
£1,000,000 from a Bet of £0.50
Do not think that gigantic wins in sports betting require multi-million stakes. Take Fred Craggs, a merchant from Yorkshire, who placed as much as 50 pence on a Horse Racing accumulator and hit £1 million (2008.)
Yes, we still advise you to study all the nuances of sports disciplines, players and teams before betting on them. Yet, Fred Craggs’ case is rather an example of an incredible win made by guesswork. As Mr. Craggs stated later, he simply visited his local bookmaker and quickly picked several horses to bet on. He didn’t even think about the win until he revisited the same outlet to make his next stake.
$75 Million Won on Baseball World Series
Jim McIngvale is a Houston businessman. Jim McIngvale is also an ardent fan of baseball and betting. So, in 2022, he placed several bets on consecutive wins of his favourite baseball team (Houston Astros) in the World Series. He wagered $10 million in total, with the final odds of 7.5.

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Curiously, Mr. McIngvale had to make a little trip to the Texas border and place his mind-blowing bet in neighbouring Louisiana. The reason was that in Texas, sports betting was (and is) prohibited. Each state in the US has its own gambling legislation (unlike New Zealand, where the unified gambling legislation is applied.) However, the firmness and belief in the team have let this gambler win a pompous prize of 75 million dollars, with a profit of $65 million.
Betting Strategies That Do Work
All in all, how to hit a massive prize on your sporting bets? The examples provided earlier in this article and other winning cases reveal the two most effective methods of winning big on wagers on sports:
- Betting high on events with low odds. Bookmakers give tiny odds on sure winners. Yet, if you place $10,000 on an event with the odds of, say, 1.20, you’ll gain a profit of $2,000.
- Betting low on events with high odds. A reverse strategy is to wager small amounts of money on high odds. Here, bettors often choose to place accumulator bets. This type of bet represents a combination of various events. Their odds are multiplied, and the resultant odds may exceed one million to one! Some bookmakers also offer various Props and Outrights with boosted odds, which may also bring a fateful win.
Still, always remember that betting may be unpredictable, and Lady Luck may easily make you lose your money, regardless of which winning strategy you choose. A perfect understanding of the sports (or at least the event to bet on) will let you increase your chances.
Be also careful with your choice of bookmaker. Opt for those with the best odds and solid coverage of sporting events. You should also pay attention to the ways of withdrawal of winnings, and for convenience – the presence of support for mobile applications. Finally, your most important rule should be to manage your budget diligently and gamble responsibly.