NFL Kickers Help Fan Win Over $300K On $1,584 Bet: Here's How It Happened, How Unlikely It Was

Anyone who has ever bet on sports knows that sports betting platforms offer incentives to sign up for accounts that sometime include free bets. Sportsbooks also offer some promoted or boosted bets for individual games or entire days of matches.

Fans who took advantage of one sportsbook promoted bet had a nice payday on Sunday.

What Happened: For many sports bettors, the 2023 NFL season may have already been one to forget with injuries to quarterback Aaron Rodgers and running back Nick Chubb, knocking two of the top NFL players out for the full season.

Sportsbook FanDuel, which is owned by Flutter Entertainment PDYPY, turned the attention from star quarterbacks and running backs to the unsung heroes that win football games, the kickers.

The sportsbook offered a promotion of each team in the Sunday, Sept. 17 games at 1 p.m. ET, 4 p.m. ET and 4:25 p.m. ET, making at least one field goal.

The “Red Zone Special” paid out at odds of +20000 or 200-1 if it hit.

According to ESPN, more than 21,000 bets were placed with FanDuel on the promotion, helped by several betting discords recommending it as a lotto play as something that could happen. Most of the bets on the promotion were for $5 or $10. FanDuel told ESPN the average bet on the prop was $6.

Each NFL game during the day on Sunday included in the promotion saw each team make at least one field goal, leading to the bet being a winner for the large number who decided to play the unlikely odds.

A bettor from the GoldBoys Discord for sports bettors saw the field goal prop flagged and checked to see the same bet available on DraftKings at odds of 30-to-1.

The better, who goes by J.D., told ESPN he placed two total bets totaling $1,584 and told his more than 160,000 Twitter followers that the prop bet might be “worth a dollar.”

With the bets cashing, J.D. collected $316,800.

J.D. told ESPN the win was his biggest in a 15-year history of betting on sports.

Related Link: NFL Week 1 Sports Betting Report: 56% YoY surge In Sportsbooks Logins 

Why It’s Important: According to ESPN, over the past 10 NFL seasons, 82% of teams playing have had at least one field goal made in a game. Statistics shared by ESPN said that a Sunday slate of 12 games that Sept. 17 saw would have a 0.84% chance that each of the 24 teams playing would have a field goal made.

J.D. said the New York Giants and New York Jets were the teams that scared him the most as the Giants had been shut out in the first week and the Jets played the Dallas Cowboys, the team that didn’t allow the Giants to score in week 1.

The bettor said the odds are typically +1,600 to +1,800 for the unique bet, making the price tag “worth a shot.”

J.D. also planned on hedging his bet and betting against teams to cover his large bets. This included placing a $20,000 bet on the Arizona Cardinals to beat the New York Giants towards the end of the game when the Giants were kicking a field goal to untie the game.

“I was going to make a profit there,” J.D. said. “But I was happy to lose the $20,000 and celebrate with everyone else.”

According to ESPN, over the past 20 seasons, only two Sunday afternoon slates have seen every team make at least one field goal: this past Sunday, Sept. 17, 2023, and Oct. 10, 2010.

A Twitter user said that since the 1970 NFL merger, the feat has only been accomplished three times with the above two dates and week 7 of the 1999 NFL season.

For FanDuel, the prop bet may have proved costly with the sportsbook saying it paid out more than $20 million to customers who bet on the field goal prop.

While the every team to make a field goal could prove popular and get attention in weeks ahead, the odds of it happening remain the same with less than a 1% chance of happening.

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