2025 Big Bets Report: Bettor Turns $100, 4-Step Parlay into $36K

Is there anything the betting public loves more than a popular favourite?

It’s been like that for decades. But as sports betting has expanded and the menu has grown, there may be one thing better than the modern team: whenever a touchdown is played.

Round up a few players you hope will reach the end zone – or better yet, score multiple touchdowns – then place a small bet to potentially win big.

It certainly worked for one bookie NFL Odds for Week 12, as $100 turned into a solid five-figure payout.

More on that profitable play, other fun wins and big bets as we recap last weekend’s NFL betting.

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Parlay Party

On Sunday morning at Fanatics Sports bookie, a customer put together this $100 game for punters:

• Jakon Smith-Njigba +500 to score two or more touchdowns for the Seahawks
• Jahmir Gibbs +160 to score two or more TDs for the Lions
• Derrick Henry +260 to score two or more TDs for the Ravens
• Quinshon Judkins +500 to score two or more TDs for the Browns

Judkins was longer, but he eased the punter up with two TD runs in the first quarter Cleveland’s 24-10 win over Raiders.

Less than two minutes into the third quarter, Smith-Njigba scored his second, during Seattle’s Victory 30-24 Tennessee.

Henry reached his quota by the end of the third quarter Baltimore’s 23-10 win against New York Jets.

Gibbs offered the only sweat, and it wasn’t much. He had a short TD catch in the second quarter and then a 49-yard TD run early in the fourth quarter.

For good measure, Gibbs scored the game-winning touchdown on a 69-yard run in overtime, giving Detroit 34-27 win over the upset Giants.

Add up those odds, and you get +36404, or more easily consumed, around 364/1. Multiply that times 100 and you get a profit of $36,404.

It’s a good deal if you can get it.

First class ticket

One of the more entertaining offerings of NFL Week is betting on which player will score the first touchdown of the day. It’s based on the elapsed game time when the first TD occurs, among the wave of games starting at 1:00 PM ET.

Because the field is so wide — there were seven games early in Week 12 — the odds can get pretty juicy. Even more so if you’re betting on a player from a two-win team, on the road against the mighty Lions.

A DraftKings bookie customer went exactly that route, betting $100 on the Giants around the world Van’Dale Robinson +11000 — that’s 110/1 — to score the first TD of the day.

Just 2:04 into the first quarter, Robinson found the end zone to give the Giants a 7-0 lead and cash in on that pass.

The bettor made a profit of $11,000, and for this he needed only 124 seconds of shutdown. That’s a huge ROI.

Here’s hoping you had it

As that Robinson bet shows, it’s not all about big bets or cashing in big bucks on a 10-game parlay, which, just to be clear, is rare.

Always keep that in mind.

Sometimes it’s about putting $10 on one straight bet, backing a long or semi-long shot and getting a solid ROI.

For example, in-game betting on Cowboys to win, after falling behind Eagles 21-0 early in the second quarter. Dallas still trailed by that margin until the final minute of the first half.

A smart bet? Probably not. But if you understand it and keep reasonable expectations, why not give it a try?

With Dallas in a three-touchdown hole, FanDuel Sportsbook has the Cowboys up at +1400 on the money line for the game. Oddsmakers allegedly signaled that Dak Prescott & Co. had little chance of winning.

But they won.

The Cowboys didn’t give up any more points as they rallied for a 24-21 win on the last play of the game. Brandon Aubrey.

If you just threw $10 at it, you’d have an extra $140 in your bank account today. Or maybe you got sloppy and put $100 on it to cash out $1,400.

Or how about this: Browns all over Dylan Sampson +1700 at any time.

Midway through the fourth quarter of Cleveland’s 24-10 road win over the Raiders, Sampson turned a simple swing into a 66-yard score. It gave the novice KB Shedeur Sanders his first NFL TD pass, in his first start.

And if you put $10 on that Sampson anytime TD bet, then you’ve got $170.

Free Ride

DraftKings offers a daily King of the Court promotion among its own NBA betting markets. How it works: Buyers try to pick which player will have the most combined points / rebounds / assists that day.

One customer—among probably thousands—recently hit the spot by making the right choice Nuggets star Nikola Jokic. For this, the user received a bonus bet of $30. So basically, a free ride on your next bet.

The bookie put that $30 on a trio of players to score two or more TDs on Sunday: Judkins, Henry and Gibbs, at odds of +5559, or about 56/1.

As noted above, all three players hit that target. So, with no money out of pocket, the client paid $1,667.85.

I like big bets and I can’t lie

Major bets fell Thursday through Sunday on NFL Week 12 odds. Among the biggest bets was one showing too much faith in the Las Vegas Raiders.

At DraftKings, a customer placed $125,000 on the Raiders moneiline -162. Las Vegas simply had to beat the visiting Browns, by any margin.

But this is the Raiders we’re talking about. I wouldn’t bet your money on them, let alone mine. Las Vegas didn’t reach the end zone until late in the fourth quarter and lost 24-10.

So that bet became a six-figure donation to the house.

They say misery loves company, and that bettor certainly had something this weekend, via three other big bets that went through on DraftKings:

• 200,000 dollars Buccaneers +7 vs. Rams. Tampa was outscored 34-7.
• $60,000 Patriots -7 vs. Bengals. New England won 26-20, but did not cover that 7-point surge.
• $60,000 Accounts -5.5 vs. Texans. Not only did Buffalo not play as a favorite, they lost Thursday night 23-19.

Let these results serve as a reminder that high-powered players can take a lot of damage. You and me? Not so much. Keep your bets and your expectations reasonable.

Patrick Everson is a sports betting analyst for FOX Sports and a senior reporter for VegasInsider.com. He is a respected journalist in the national sports betting space. He lives in Las Vegas, where he enjoys playing golf in 110 degree heat. Follow him on X: @PatrickE_Vegas.

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