May 2, 2026
While the odds certainly weren't in their favor, one lucky sports gambler in Florida managed to turn a $30 wager into $1.98 million with a prescient bet on Major League Baseball.
With a six-leg parlay, this gambler overcame +6,576,031 odds — which equals an implied probability of just 0.000015% — to win a massive payday, MarketWatch reports (1). These odds indicate the bettor would have won $65,760.31 for every $1 wagered.
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According to the Hard Rock Casino (2) in Florida, this successful parlay called for six MLB players to hit home runs in a single night: Riley Greene (Tigers), Jazz Chisholm (Yankees), Coby Mayo (Orioles), Nick Kurtz (Athletics), Bryce Harper (Phillies) and Jesús Sánchez (Blue Jays).
The winner, who reportedly placed the wager on the morning of April 24 and woke up the next day nearly $2 million richer, has reportedly chosen to remain anonymous. Hard Rock, however, has revealed the winner is a resident of Florida that "fits the profile of a casual sports bettor."
What is a parlay?
A parlay is a wager that combines two to 12 predictions into one bet, and these predictions can include a wide range of sports (3). To win, each one of the parlay's predictions (or "picks") must prove to be correct.
Parlays are considered a high-risk, high-reward betting strategy. The more picks a bettor includes in a parlay, the less likely said bettor is to get them all correct. Adding picks to a parlay increases the payout, but it also lowers the probability of winning.
There are also situations in which a pick could be voided from a parlay.
"If one of your picks results in a push (i.e. not technically a win or a loss based on the bet rules), the pick will be voided and the odds for that pick will be changed to 1.00, essentially removing it from the payout calculation," according to PlaySmart (4). "In other words, your potential winnings are reduced as though that pick was never added to your parlay."
Because parlays offer big upside with limited monetary risk, these bets are becoming very popular. In fact, approximately one in every three sports bets is a parlay (5), and sportsbooks are likely thrilled with that ratio.
Why? Because parlays "almost always lose," according to MarketWatch (6).
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Parlays are 'highly profitable for sportsbooks'
Despite the Florida bettor's massive win, sports-betting platforms like Hard Rock are happy to share these success stories.
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"Promoting these bets, especially when framed around near-misses or life-changing payouts, generates excitement, shares and clicks — all of which help drive customer engagement and acquisition," a spokesperson for the National Council on Problem Gambling shared with MarketWatch.
"Long-shot parlays tend to be highly profitable for sportsbooks. Because the odds of winning are extremely low, the operators take in far more in wagers than they pay out in winnings."
Hold percentage — the amount of money a sports-betting platform keeps on the average bet — is a big reason why sportsbooks favor parlays. While the hold percentage on traditional bets is typically around 5%, it's anywhere from 15% and 25% for parlays, according to the UNLV Center for Gaming Research (7).
As with any high-risk, high-reward venture, using parlays to bet on sports could be a good way to hit big on your bets. But, again, there's a very good reason that sportsbooks are thrilled with the parlay's rise in popularity.
"Bettors lose billions of dollars a year on parlays, the data shows, and operators bring in far more revenue for every dollar wagered on these bets than they do straight bets," The Washington Post reports (8). "In most of the states that publish the relevant data, parlays account for between half and two-thirds of the operators' revenue."
In other words, when it comes to parlays, the house almost always wins. And while this Florida bettor's big payday may prove that you can break bank with parlays, the odds are rarely in your favor.
Article Sources
We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our ethics and guidelines.
MarketWatch (1),(6); Hard Rock Bet (2); PlaySmart (3),(4); Morningstar (5),(7); The Washington Post (8)
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Chase is an Associate Editor for Wise Publishing. He formerly worked at Yahoo Canada as an editor on both the News and Sports teams.
