If you have been around the sports betting block long enough then you have undoubtedly pieced together a long shot parlay that feels more like a lottery ticket than an actual wager. Before the games begin, the world is our oyster and anything can happen. The funny thing is, we silently expect it will. That is until the games start to unfold and we see that we have two shots at winning this mega parlay before us – slim and none – and Slim just left town.
But not everyone loses these Hail Mary wagers. Case in point, there was a FanDuel customer out of Tennessee who bet $15 to win $81,978.62. It was a four-leg parlay consisting of four NBA players scoring at least 15 points in their respective games on Thursday night.
The first thought that comes to mind is, four legs, that’s it? Well, the odds mean everything and the Tennessee sharpshooter that plunked down 15 greenbacks wasn’t shy about including a bunch of relative long shots to seal the deal.
The parlay consisted of Justin Holiday (+1020), Blake Griffin (+590), Daniel Theis (+1260), and Landry Shamet (+420) to score at least 15 points each so that FanDuel could pay this man his money. Let’s take it blow by blow and vicariously relive the thrill that saw a small bet reap a huge reward.
The first game saw Justin Holiday of the Pacers start the game, and we should point out that the odds on Holiday were the highest of the four although he has averaged more points per game than the other three. In five of his previous seven games, the 32-year-old veteran had scored double digits, and in three of those contests, he bucketed 15 or more points. Only minutes into the final quarter, Holiday splashed the 15 required and ended with 17 points on the night.
The 76ers/Nets game started about a half-hour later and Blake Griffin was in the spotlight, having gotten a rare start due to COVID issues on the Nets’ roster. This was a real nailbiter for our Tennessee friend as Griffin was sitting with 14 points, one agonizing free throw away before he spotted up from 26-feet out and nailed a three-pointer to end with 17 points on the night and ice a 114-105 victory for the Nets. Phew!
In a quartet of long shots, Daniel Theis was the longest on the board at +1260, and rightfully so as the 6’9” power forward had scored north of 14 points just twice all season. But despite the long odds, Theis was the most stress-free play of the night when he hit the 15-point threshold early in the fourth quarter and ended with 22 points in a losing effort against the Knicks.
At this point, three of the four legs are in with just Phoenix’s Landry Shamet on deck. According to the FanDuel oddsmakers, Shamet is the favorite of the four to bucket 15 points at odds of +420. But the interesting part of it all is that Shamet has only reached 15 points or more just once, back on November 4th, and now he is somehow more likely than the others to strike parlay gold? Well, with less than five minutes remaining in the contest, Shamet drilled two from downtown to end with 16 points on the night as the Suns defeated the Wizards, 118-98!
And they say dreams don’t come true…
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