The first weekend of March Madness games for the 2024 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament provided many exciting outcomes and finishes for sports bettors.
One sports bettor nearly won big thanks to successfully predicting the outcome of multiple games, but fell just shy.
What Happened: Billions of dollars are expected to be wagered on this year's NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament including March Madness bracket pools and bets placed with sportsbooks like DraftKings Inc DKNG.
One bettor placed a $50 bet with DraftKings combining the outcomes of games played in the first and second rounds that took place Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
The $50 bet included 18 games with some moneyline and some against-the-spread bets from the first and second rounds and came down to two final outcomes. To cash out the parlay, the bettor needed Baylor to defeat Clemson and the University of Connecticut to beat Northwestern by 13 points or more.
The 18-leg parlay was placed with odds of +405,346 and was set to pay out $202,723.41 if all the legs ended successfully.
According to sports reporter Darren Rovell, the bettor had a cash-out option of $59,810.38 ahead of the Baylor and Connecticut games. The bettor listed the bet ticket on bet exchange PropSwap for $70,100. This means the bettor would have taken home $70,110 and a new bettor would have the ticket with the potential payout.
Rovell said the bettor turned down an offer of $70,000 ahead of the Baylor and Clemson game, which was played before the Connecticut game. With Baylor down 10 points to Clemson at half, the ticket price was also lowered to $73,000 on PropSwap according to the bet exchange platform.
A poll posted by Rovell asked his two million followers if they would have cashed out or let the bet ride. Here were the results.
Cash-out for $59K now: 56%
Let it ride through Baylor game: 16%
Let it ride all the way: 28%
Clemson beat Baylor 72 to 62 and ultimately ended the bet and the bettor's potential six-figure payday. Connecticut went on to defeat Northwestern 75 to 58, meaning 17 of the 18 outcomes correctly hit.
Related Link: Betting On Biden: A $100 Bet On President’s March Madness Final Four Picks Could Pay Out $7,870
What's Next: There's more March Madness ahead with the Sweet 16 set and games to resume play on Thursday, March 28.
Sweet 16 games will be played on Thursday and Friday beginning at 7:09 p.m. ET with Warner Bros. Discovery Inc WBD and Paramount Global PARAPARAA sharing coverage with the TBS, truTV and CBS channels.
The Elite Eight games will be on Saturday, March 30 and Sunday, March 31.
This year's Final Four games on April 6 and championship game on April 8 will air exclusively on Warner-owned TBS.
The 2024 Sweet 16 features all the 1 and 2 seeds for only the fifth time since tournament expansion in 1985. While there were several upsets in the first round and first two days of play. The second round saw the majority of favorites win and this year's Sweet 16 includes only one seed higher than 6 (11-seed North Carolina State).
Read Next: March Madness Perfection: The Incredibly Low Odds Of Correctly Nailing 63 NCAA Games
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