Scandals, some changes in public perception highlighted the year for sports betting

Scandals, some changes in public perception highlighted the year for sports betting

• 20 Aprile 2026 14:12
• Alessandro Melis
• Blog
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Back in 2011, Steve Whiteley received a free ticket to the horse races, so he went to enjoy his day. He placed a £2 bet on the six winners for the day, and surprisingly he got them all right. Whiteley even chose one of the horses that had lost all 28 of its past races, but luck was on his side that day. Steve Whiteley won £1.5 million, earning him a spot on the list of the biggest betting wins in history. November of 2015 was an astonishingly lucky month for Dave Oancea, nicknamed Vegas Dave.

Tournament picks: How to bet Saturday’s national semifinal gamesMark Zinno

Ohtani was cleared of any wrongdoing, but his proximity to such malfeasance heaped negative attention on baseball’s biggest name. That would be Haiti and Curacao, both currently at +250000, meaning a $100 bet on either of those nations would return $250,000 if they were to win the World Cup. — Fox Sports is the English-language home in the U.S. for the World Cup, with 70 matches set to be aired on Fox and 34 more on FS1.

Money talks

• He didn’t race in Wednesday’s Clash, but plans to be medically cleared for the Daytona 500.
• On the other hand, the Huskies’ spread has ballooned from its opener of -27.5.
• For this article, though, we’re focusing on the largest reported winning wagers in U.S. sports betting history — all of which have happened since 2018.
• He took on the odds of 1,666,666/1 and placed a mere £0.30 on a 15-leg parlay on the Champions League games.
• Back in 1891, Wells broke the bank at Monte Carlo and collected a million Francs (over $500,000 in today’s market) after an 11-hour marathon of roulette.
• To celebrate her retirement, now a former teacher Beverly Whitten decided to treat herself by testing her luck at the slots.
• As mentioned, his first betting victory made him $200,000 richer, but that’s nothing compared to his second one.
• However, in that time period, that SC spread had been the only one over 50; in the 2026 tournament’s first round alone, there are four such lines.
• “Everyone’s writing off the Patriots, including us,” Mucklow told ESPN on Sunday.
• Barkley’s rushing total was set at 110.5 yards, and he finished with 57.
• Assuming -110 odds for each spread, if a bettor had started with $100 and rolled over the winnings of all six bets, they would be up $4,841.27.
• These bets were made even though, in the hours before a two-week ceasefire was announced on Tuesday, President Donald Trump’s rhetoric had escalated sharply and there were few signals that a ceasefire deal was imminent.
• In this wholesome story, Gerry Mcllroy won £100,000 (approximately $183,000) after making a moneyline bet of £200 on his son winning the British Open within a decade.

It was the NHL’s first betting-related suspension in the era of online gambling. Further, every one of those teams has increased the spread since the opening of betting and, in some cases, by as many as three points, largely due to bettor support. Houston, for example, has received 87% of the bets and handle at DraftKings, pushing the school from -22.5 to -23.5 against Idaho. At BetMGM, Duke -27.5 is getting the fourth-most spread bets by handle. While those big-money bettors gladly snap up those larger spreads at open, casual bettors tend to gravitate toward the tighter spreads and money lines, according to bookmakers. Glose also notes that in-play betting tends get a lot of attention, especially at an in-person book like his.

“Dallas was a very public side in the afternoon,” John Murray, executive director of the Westgate SuperBook in Las Vegas, told ESPN. Create a league and customize league size, scoring and rules to play in the league you want to play in. Preller brought flame-throwing closer Mason Miller along with starter J.P. Sears to San Diego in a deal with the A’s, trading away No. 3 overall prospect Leo De Vries and three other top-20 prospects in the Padres’ system. The no. 16 seed has never reached the Sweet 16 with the only other first-round winner UMBC losing 43 to 50 in the second round to 9-seed Kansas State in 2018. Instead, this bettor saw “the writing was on the wall” and made the tough bet.

You can learn about the feedback and opinion on sum withdrawals and betting in BigiBet Nigeria in the “Feedback” and in the comment to the review. Browse our diverse game categories such as Top Games, Crash Games, and Virtual Sports. At the onset of March Madness, Portnoy wagered $600,000 on the UConn Huskies at +360 with the hope for a run that another championship run would culminate in a $2.16 million profit. Favorites have gone a combined 8-7 against the spread, with eight overs and seven unders.

• He first placed a $250 wager on the St. Louis Cardinals winning the National League.
• Football, basketball, ice hockey, and tennis are the options picked most frequently.
• But we think that’s far more likely to be Daytona noise than a skill regression.
• Ten days after the MLB announced the Marcano ban, the league said it disciplined umpire Pat Hoberg for violating the league’s gambling rules.
• Though Ohtani has looked dominant in his own right, having not yet allowed a run in two starts, the Dodgers look to keep him fresh for the full 162-game stretch.
• DraftKings Sportsbook director Johnny Avello said he couldn’t recall a time when the 1- and 2-seeds had spreads this high in the opening round.
• You can also bet on the spread in sports with non-traditional scoring, like tennis.
• But this game is remembered for Panthers WR Xavier Leggette letting a would-be 32-yard TD pass in the end zone go through his hands with under a minute remaining.
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Erick Lindgren – wins $340,000

However, due to the nature of baseball scores and how close teams tend to be to each other, betting the favorite on the run line often comes with plus-odds, while the underdog on the run line comes with minus-odds. Some of those betting could back top underdogs and see huge payouts like one that happened on Friday night. Fairleigh Dickinson, a small school in New Jersey, defeated one of the top teams in college basketball Friday night. An anonymous 25-year-old was bored waiting for his basketball game to start, so he headed to the Excalibur casino to pass the time.

Cleveland Guardians pitcher Luis Ortiz was placed on paid administrative leave on July 3 as a result of an MLB investigation, multiple sources previously said. The league is investigating whether Ortiz pre-determined the outcome of certain pitches, which were flagged due to unusual betting patterns. The Wall Street Journal first reported the news, and The Athletic confirmed.

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Not satisfied just yet, Sean Connery left all his winnings on 17 once more, and 17 rolled up for the third time in a row, beating the incredible odds of 50,000/1. He collected 17 million lire (approximately £10,000) which would be about  £163,000 in today’s market. While the odds are rarely ever in your favour when you’re placing bets, the stars can align at times and help you take home massive winnings.

Why Trust New York Post Betting

Alabama fired baseball coach Brad Bohannon on May 4, 2023, after he was found to be connected with betting activity in Ohio concerning an LSU-Alabama game, two people briefed on the investigation previously said. Jalen Hurts had the most money bet on him at +375 to win Super Bowl MVP and had the second-most tickets wagered on him. Hurts passed for two touchdowns and rushed for one on a tush push. Following Daynard’s tobacco playbook, in December they filed the first in what they say will be a series of lawsuits… suing DraftKings in Massachusetts for deceptive advertising… The group is also lobbying Congress to enact federal regulations. They say the current mishmash of state-by-state policies—just isn’t working.

Sports betting boom fuels concerns over problem gambling 60 Minutes

For 2026, this also figures heavily into the women’s side, where UConn has been a favorite all tournament and is getting 6.5 points against South Carolina in the Final Four. The lack of Connecticut bettors hasn’t stopped the Huskies from racking up substantial action, with 87% of the handle backing their spread for Friday night. The Huskies’ spread has garnered 57% of the wagers and 55% of the money at DraftKings, as well as a majority of the bets (64%) and handle (56%) on the moneyline of +110. BetMGM has seen some solid action backing the Illini, but characterized the spread movement as “a market move.” Everything that happens in sports has additional context when viewed from a betting perspective. From season-changing injuries to record-setting moments and so much more, the news cycle will constantly and significantly affect the sports betting industry.

But tax revenues have varied vastly because only 15 states collect at least 10% of every dollar wagered. Argentina captain Lionel Messi — considered by many the greatest player in the history of the game — hasn’t said with absolute certainty that he’ll play in the World Cup. Then-New York Jets wide receivers coach Miles Austin was suspended for violating the NFL’s Gambling Policy, a league source confirmed on Dec. 23, 2022. There was no indication that Austin bet on NFL games as a coach, but bet on other sports in violation of the league’s policy. In light of the recent news, let’s revisit the famous sports betting scandals since that landmark case. Caesars also said it was the first Super Bowl in which more game parlays were bet than the more traditional straight wagers.

Data safety

• When Tiger Woods won the Masters Tournament, Adducci got a huge pay-off of $1.2 million.
• So, who could conceivably knock them off for college basketball’s ultimate prize?
• Miller told us sportsbooks look at betting patterns to spot problem gamblers.
• Additionally, only one double-digit seed has reached the round of 16 in four straight tournaments.
• Hitting five legs on a parlay isn’t a common occurrence, but one bettor made it happen.
• An anonymous 25-year-old was bored waiting for his basketball game to start, so he headed to the Excalibur casino to pass the time.
• November of 2015 was an astonishingly lucky month for Dave Oancea, nicknamed Vegas Dave.
• South Carolina is 2-7 ATS in this position, while UConn is 2-3 ATS; UCLA has never been this large a favorite at this stage over that time period.
• According to her, she decided to place the bet after spending her Sunday morning discussing spreads with her boyfriend.
• The Knights had to win a play-in game between 16-seeds earlier in the week to make it into the field of 64.
• M-Hub Gaming Operations Ltd is licensed and regulated by the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA), a public regulatory body responsible for the governance of all forms of gaming based in Malta.
• However, it only took John Heywood less than 25 minutes to take the win that most gamblers can only dream of.
• It joined several others taking this action, including U.S. sportsbook giants DraftKings and FanDuel, as well as ESPN BET.
• And wouldn’t you know it, the largest of all comes from just a few months ago from a BetMGM bettor in Ohio who wagered $8 million on the Oklahoma City Thunder to win the 2025 NBA Finals over the Indiana Pacers at -700 odds.
• If he had invested $100,000 of his $600,000 initial stake and rolled over every bet ATS, Portnoy would’ve won roughly $4.841 million.

“Coming into the season, Wilson and Fields were seen as largely interchangeable, with Wilson viewed as slightly more valuable,” a trading spokesperson for ESPN BET told ESPN. “Overall, there wasn’t a large adjustment given the outlook for the Steelers today and the amount of variables for both teams coming into the week.” Tomlin turned to Justin Fields for the start, which shifted the line on the Steelers from +3.5 to +4 or +4.5, depending on the sportsbook.

Don Johnson – wins $15 million

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• His lawyer later said the ex-Detroit Pistons guard, now a free agent, was not a target of the Department of Justice’s investigation into sports gambling by players.
• Most sportsbooks are consistent with odds and spreads, but occasionally there are discrepancies.
• DraftKings Sportsbook director Johnny Avello says Connecticut appears to be returning to its dynastic form, explaining its popularity with the public, as well as its eye-popping 54.5-point spread over UTSA in the first round.
• More bets were placed — and more money was wagered — on the Bengals to win this game outright than any other team at both ESPN BET and DraftKings.
• A Liverpool fan and supporter for over 26 years, Adrian noticed in 2005 that Xabi had been trying to score from his own half several times.
• While those big-money bettors gladly snap up those larger spreads at open, casual bettors tend to gravitate toward the tighter spreads and money lines, according to bookmakers.
• There are quite a few success stories out there about people who tried their luck and got their money’s worth and more.
• This was especially true in 2019 when 11 years had passed since his last championship victory.
• Levant showed us what gambling today entails… it was an NFL Sunday, though on DraftKings, the betting options extended far beyond football.
• Recently, Zarb-Cousin was able to use Britain’s public information laws to access data the betting company Flutter—owner of FanDuel—had on a U.K.

His attorney previously said the vast majority of the $22 million he stole was to subsidize gambling losses. Some form of sports gambling is legal and regulated in 38 states, as well as Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. Barkley’s rushing total was set at 110.5 yards, and he finished with 57. He rushed for more than 100 yards in his five prior games and nine of 10. Winning and losing money… for millions of fans, like these guys, it’s one more reason to watch and enjoy sports. Holmes has pitched very well so far this season and bright spots for the Mets have been few and far between; he comes in with a 1.50 ERA in his three starts.

A total of 96.25% of people picked Purdue to win the first-round matchup. Purdue was also a popular option to reach the Final 4 and the Championship Game, selected in 15% and 7.9% of brackets, respectively. Purdue was the fourth most popular bet for the Final 4 and Championship Game. The Knights didn’t win the Northeast Conference Tournament to secure an automatic qualification for the tournament and shouldn’t have been in the field. Merrimack College, who defeated Fairleigh Dickinson, wasn’t eligible to play in the NCAA Tournament this year, clearing the way for the Knights.

Iowa, a 10.5-point underdog, upset defending champion Florida, becoming only the second 9-seed to beat a 1-seed in the past 12 tournaments. None of the non-power conference teams that advanced in the opening round survived the second round, leaving a Sweet 16 consisting of all power conference teams for a second straight year. Prior to the last two years, at least one team from a non-power conference had reached the Sweet 16 in every tournament in the modern era. Additionally, only one double-digit seed has reached the round of 16 in four straight tournaments. The average point spread in the first round climbed to a record 13.6, an approximately 58% increase since the 2023 tournament, according to ESPN Research.

Joey Feazel, sports trader for Caesars Sportsbook, said he believes the adjustment to the line was an overreaction and adds, “I expect it to come back down toward the Packers by game time.” However, this was before Green Bay quarterback Jordan Love went down with a knee injury late against the Eagles in Week 1. When the line was reposted, with Love ruled out with a sprained MCL and backup Malik Willis expected to start, the Colts were 3-point favorites. In the hours before kickoff, Hill was ESPN BET’s most bet player to score a touchdown and the second-most bet for all other props at over 80 receiving yards, trailing only Trevor Lawrence’s over 200 passing yards. At BetMGM, Hill garnered the second-most tickets to score a touchdown at -125 odds. Forty-five contestants failed to submit their Week 1 selection by the deadline.

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Harry Levant is a gambling addiction therapist and leading voice on the public health impacts of online sports betting. As of Friday morning, Illinois is -1.5 (-115) over UConn and Michigan is -1.5 (-108) against Arizona, according to DraftKings odds. Assuming those lines hold until tip-off, it would be the first time since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985 that both national semifinals had spreads of two or less, per ESPN Research. The trading pattern of newly created Polymarket accounts placing strategic, well-timed bets mirrors earlier episodes on the platform.

Men’s Final Four features tightest spreads on record

However, he ended up losing all of his money playing craps, poker, and baccarat. Eventually, Karas got banned from all Las Vegas and Nevada casinos for life. Almost ten years later, the bet would pay off as Federer won his seventh Wimbledon game.

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• Teams tend to play better and win more at home, which means a home underdog could offer value.
• Whether it’s hitting the jackpot, lucking out at the roulette table, or placing the perfect bet on betting sites, take a look at a few of the biggest betting wins in the UK and abroad in the past few decades.
• And outside of the 21 laps that Austin Cindric led in 2022, no winner has led more than 10 laps in any of the last four Daytona 500s.
• The line opened May 20 at ESPN BET and has ticked down toward the Jets.
• The history of betting has been made, making it the biggest individual payout on a futures bet.
• It was the first time favorites won every game in a single day in the opening round since 1992, but it didn’t lead to a hot streak for the betting public.
• Hill made headlines before any games kicked off Sunday when he was detained by police and cited with reckless driving, per ESPN’s Jeff Darlington.
• That’s why we recommend spreading out your bets if you’re looking to cash in on the Feb. 15 race.
• Some of those betting could back top underdogs and see huge payouts like one that happened on Friday night.
• At BetMGM, Duke -27.5 is getting the fourth-most spread bets by handle.
• Not many St. Louis Cardinals fans would have placed $500 on them before the 2011 MLB season, but that’s exactly what this anonymous bettor did.
• However, due to the nature of baseball scores and how close teams tend to be to each other, betting the favorite on the run line often comes with plus-odds, while the underdog on the run line comes with minus-odds.

There’s no single key to success when it comes to gambling and betting. Sometimes, it’s all just a matter of luck, and sometimes you need skill and well-thought-out strategies to succeed. We’re still not through Dave Oancea’s impressive November of 2015.

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• For example, say the New York Mets are -164 favorites on the money line at DraftKings (wager $164 to win $100) against the Atlanta Braves.
• Erich Richter is a brazilian jiu-jitsu blue belt but he has a black belt in MMA betting.
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• Eventually, the St. Louis Cardinals came out on top, and the bettor received accumulated winnings of $375,000  (approximately £286, 000).
• They say you shouldn’t place all your eggs in one basket, but it’s paid off for Farren Yeats.
• The league also said at the time it was suspending four other players — Michael Kelly, Jay Groome, José Rodríguez and Andrew Saalfrank — for a year because they bet on baseball games they were not directly tied to.

Newly created accounts placed large wagers hours before the January capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, and made hundreds of thousands of dollars in profit. Similar clusters of accounts have also repeatedly profited from well-timed bets on military actions involving Iran. Here you can find all primary sports such as Football, Basketball, Handball, Cricket, Rugby, and other sports. The wagers have opportunities to try their luck on virtual and casino games, Luckey ball, and horse racing too. Assuming -110 odds for each spread, if a bettor had started with $100 and rolled over the winnings of all six bets, they would be up $4,841.27.

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This was especially true in 2019 when 11 years had passed since his last championship victory. There are quite a few success stories out there about people who tried their luck and got their money’s worth and more. The house always wins, but that doesn’t mean that a regular Joe or Jane gets the short end of the stick every time.

The favorites

Soon after, he got arrested in England for one of his notorious schemes. After serving eight years for fraud, and getting arrested a couple more times afterward, Charles Wells died without a penny to his name. It all started when he ripped off £400 from his investors, claiming that he was inventing a musical jump rope. Instead, he set off for Monte Carlo and tried his luck at roulette. Amazingly, the stunt paid off, but his luck would quickly run out. Spending some quality time with your children pays off in more ways than one.

However, even Packer couldn’t sustain his winning streak for too long. By 1999, his gambling hobby had cost him about $28 million in London. Instead of taking all of the money at once, he made a deal with the casino to receive $1.5 million annually over the following 25 years. Although Tiger Woods is one of the most famous professional golfers in the world, betting on him hasn’t always seemed like the smartest choice.

The three ‘dogs to win outright were the Cowboys (+2) over the Browns, the Steelers (+4.5) over the Falcons and the Patriots (+7.5) over the Bengals. This was before he threw for 232 yards and two touchdowns, rushing for an additional 39 yards and two scores in the Buffalo Bills’ win over the Arizona Cardinals. The massive performance vaulted him to +550 at ESPN BET, where he is now the second favorite, behind only Patrick Mahomes (+375).

Fair Play™

Sportsbooks told ESPN that they actually had a winning day Friday, despite the run of favorites. Betting on home underdogs, even with the sportsbooks adjusting lines to account for which team is at home, is generally a profitable idea. Teams tend to play better and win more at home, which means a home underdog could offer value. Of course, there will be exceptions, but most big upsets in college sports happen when the underdog is hosting. Baseball spreads are called run lines and are generally set at 1.5.

He has a top five and another top 10 in addition to his 2022 win. But he wasn’t anywhere near the lead halfway through the final lap. Byron went from seventh to first on the last lap thanks to a crash at the front of the field that he bigibet somehow escaped. Public blockchain data cannot identify who controls the new wallets. Polymarket uses proxy smart contract wallets, meaning a single user can create multiple accounts. Only Polymarket has the internal data needed to determine whether these were new users or existing users opening additional accounts.

• Glose also notes that in-play betting tends get a lot of attention, especially at an in-person book like his.
• The victory marked the second time ever a 16-seed defeated a 1-seed in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.
• The jump was easily the biggest of any team in the league and the Padres now have the eighth-best odds in baseball to win it all.
• Further, every one of those teams has increased the spread since the opening of betting and, in some cases, by as many as three points, largely due to bettor support.
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• Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs are headed to the big game once again and will aim to become the first team to capture three straight Super Bowl titles.
• All the same, the Falcons were a hot commodity in the betting markets, attracting the fifth-most spread tickets at ESPN BET and the 11th-highest handle at DraftKings.
• For 2026, this also figures heavily into the women’s side, where UConn has been a favorite all tournament and is getting 6.5 points against South Carolina in the Final Four.
• The Eagles were 8-1 as they entered their bye week in Week 10 of the season and after Week 12 had a 10-1 record, looking like a return to the Super Bowl, where the team lost to the Chiefs last year.
• Our betting buzz file, with contributions from David Purdum, Doug Greenberg and others, aims to provide fans a look at the sports betting stories that are driving the conversation.
• We can’t talk about the biggest betting wins in the UK without mentioning Mick Gibbs.
• When Monty’s Pass won the race, Futter received £348,000 as his owner and an extra £400,000 for his successful bet.

Betting tips for Monday Night Football: Jets at 49ersESPN

This was likely bad news for most bookies, who had a significant liability on UConn’s future market, with Portnoy being the largest reported bet on DraftKings. Barstool Founder Dave Portnoy just won the biggest bet of his life. The line opened May 20 at ESPN BET and has ticked down toward the Jets.

This is usually presented as a “sets spread” at betting sites, with the favorite listed at -1.5 sets and the underdog at +1.5. The spread represents a point differential, suggesting the potential gap between the favorite and underdog in NFL, college football, NBA and college basketball betting. Spreads are also available in MLB betting and NHL betting, but in a different way.

Still, that doesn’t make billionaire Mike Ashley’s story any less fascinating. They say you shouldn’t place all your eggs in one basket, but it’s paid off for Farren Yeats. In 1996, he placed a £62 bet on Frankie Dettori to win all seven of his races for the day. In an astonishing victory, now known as the magnificent seven, Frankie Dettori surprised everyone, and Farren Yeats got a pay-off of £550,000. Only a few short years after winning the accumulator bet of £157,000, Mick Gibbs tested his luck once again and wasn’t disappointed. He took on the odds of 1,666,666/1 and placed a mere £0.30 on a 15-leg parlay on the Champions League games.