With the year 2025 already in the rearview mirror, it’s easy to analyze betting decisions that, retrospectively, could be described as “miscalculated”. At Alofoke Deportes, we take a look at some of the riskiest and most surprising bets of the year.
Bold Bets and Unexpected Results
A notable example was DraftKings’ $25,000 bet on the Las Vegas Raiders to win the Super Bowl, with odds of 100-1. Unfortunately for the bettor, the Raiders failed to meet expectations.
In another case, 102 participants in the “Circa Survivor” contest, a high-stakes betting event, were eliminated for not submitting their selections on time. The contest had an entry fee of $1,000 and a prize pool of $18.7 million. The Kalshi prediction market saw one of its clients invest $183,954 in a bet on Jake Paul, an influencer turned boxer, to beat heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua. Joshua won by knockout, leaving the bettor with a harsh lesson.But not everything was negative for the bettors. There were success stories that left the executives of the betting houses lamenting “favorable results for the clients.” Despite these setbacks, the betting industry is expected to survive and thrive in the new year.The sports betting business is a world of surprises, where fortune can smile or turn its back in an instant.
Alofoke Deportes
The Wildest Bets of 2025
- January 9: A DraftKings bettor won $217,370.23 with a 50-cent bet on a 19-leg college basketball parlay.
- January 28: A DraftKings bettor wagered $1,000 on Indiana Hoosiers quarterback Fernando Mendoza to win the Heisman Trophy, at odds of 100-1. Mendoza won the award, generating a net profit of $100,000.
- February 9: The Philadelphia Eagles defeated the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX. BetMGM reported significant losses on this event.
- April 21: MLB home run bets surged on a specific day, focusing on Nick Castellanos, leading to odds adjustments.
- June 5: A bettor in Ohio won $1.42 million by betting $8 million on the Oklahoma City Thunder to win the NBA Finals.
- June 15: J.J. Spaun, at odds of 150-1, won the US Open.
- June 24: A bettor in Arizona bet on Texas, Penn State, and Clemson to win the College Football Playoff, without success.
- June 25: The Dallas Mavericks selected Cooper Flagg with the first pick in the NBA draft, at odds of 500-1.
- August 23: North Carolina and Indiana received the same number of bets to win the college football national championship, with contrasting results.
- August 30: A DraftKings bettor won $125,088.36 with a 15-leg MLB parlay.
- August 31: A FanDuel bettor won $1,317.18 following Lee Corso’s final predictions on College Gameday.
- September 7: The Buffalo Bills came back to beat the Baltimore Ravens, generating large profits for BetMGM customers and significant losses for DraftKings.
- September 11: A Caesars Sportsbook bettor won $985,000 by betting on Terence Crawford to beat Canelo Álvarez.
- October 15: A Massachusetts bettor placed multiple parlays on Nathan Lukes’ hits in the American League Championship Series, with controversial results.
- November 2: A Caesars Sportsbook bettor won approximately $111,000 by predicting that four tight ends would score the first touchdown in their respective games.
- December 7: A Hard Rock BET bettor won $344,902.81 with a 20-leg parlay of unders in college basketball.
- December 8: A Fanatics bettor won $1.86 million with a four-leg NFL parlay.
- December 14: A bettor turned a 10-cent parlay into $7,356.80 by predicting the first touchdown in five NFL games.
