The sports betting history is full of impressive wagers, ranging from Tayla Polia’s 15-leg NFL parlay to a £500,000 payout on a £0.30 stake. Thanks to our BetZillion experts, now you can check out all of them in one place. We compiled a list of all of the world’s biggest betting payouts. It includes different types of wagers placed on the highest odds across a wide range of sports. Continue reading to see how the biggest winners in history did it.
Securing a big payout is challenging, especially when you target markets with enormous odds or combine multiple wagers into a single accumulator. The chances of winning such bets are usually slim, even for professional gamblers. But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible.
Combining skills and luck, many punters have achieved the incredible feat of hitting massive payouts. Some of them now rank among the biggest sports bets ever won. Let’s check them out.
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Experienced punters prefer to rely on their knowledge to make predictions. They analyze players, their skills, and perceived chances of winning. But there are also instances where they act on a hunch. This approach helped a Liverpool fan named Adrian Hayward rake in one of the biggest football bet wins in 2006.
In July 2005, Hayward had a dream that Liverpool midfielder Xabi Alonso scored from his own half. Acting on it, he placed a bet with Paddy Power that Alonso would eventually get a goal from there at some point during the 2005-06 season. He wagered £200 at odds of 125 to 1.
His dream ended up becoming true. Xabi Alonso scored a goal from behind the halfway line in the closing minutes of the FA Cup third round match against Luton Town. Liverpool won the game 5-3, and Hayward received a £25,000 payout.
Nobody would have ever imagined that an amount as little as $0.10 could result in one of the biggest betting wins. Two anonymous punters in Saratoga Springs, USA, made that happen with a Superfecta horse race bet and managed to rake in $76,000.
The punters put action on a high-risk Superfecta wager, which refers to making predictions on the first four horses that will finish in a race and the exact order they will come in. As you can imagine, this is a hard market to predict, resulting in pretty attractive odd prices of 88/1. Surprisingly, the two Saratoga Springs punters managed to beat the odds, and their forecast proved accurate, resulting in $76,000 in profits, one of the biggest single bets won in horse racing.
Parlays, also known as accumulators, are one of the riskiest forms of sports betting. They require punters to make correct predictions on multiple selections in order to get a payout.
In 2015, American bettor Tayla Polia placed a 15-leg NFL parlay wager on William Hill’s online sportsbook. It featured point spread wagers on 14 teams and over/under on points in a game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Denver Broncos. The parlay came with 20,000/1 odds, and Polia staked $5 on it.
Tayla Polia, who won $100,000 off her $5, 15-leg NFL parlay bet, has collected her $ from @WilliamHillUS sportsbook pic.twitter.com/K41kMNJY0g
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) December 25, 2015
This long shot wager paid off for Polia as every one of her selections proved correct. It resulted in a payout of $100,005. The most surprising thing about this incredible win is that, although she had been a lifetime sports fan, this was the second time Polia had ever placed any bet. She didn’t realize she was picking against the spread and chose teams she thought would win outright.
Daily Mail
In 2004, Gerry McIlroy was confident that his son Rory, 15 years old at the time, had the potential to be golf’s next star. He staked £200 with Ladbrokes that the boy would win the British Open (The Open Championship) in the next decade. The bookmaker offered him 500-1 odds.
Rory McIlroy came close to meeting these high expectations in 2010 by placing third. In 2014, his last chance to secure a £100,000 payout for his dad, he edged out Spain’s Sergio Garcia and Rickie Fowler of the US to become the British Open champion for the first time.
Two of Gerry’s friends also had faith in Rory’s golfing skills, placing similar bets and winning £80,000.
Daily Mail
Roger Federer’s first Wimbledon win in 2003 impressed many tennis fans, including a man named Nicholas Newlife. Anticipating that the player would achieve future successes, Newlife placed a £1,520 bet with bookmaker William Hill on Federer to win seven Wimbledon tournaments by 2019. His prediction came true in 2012. Federer beat the local hero Andy Murray to claim his seventh Wimbledon title. Unfortunately, Newlife didn’t live to see this day and claim £101,840 in winnings, having passed away in 2009. His entire state, including this bet, was donated to Oxfam International, a charity that fights global poverty.
In 2000, Peter Edwards visited his local William Hill sportsbook and placed a bet that his grandson, Harry Wilson, would play for the Welsh national team one day. The bookmaker gave him odds of 2,500 to 1, and he ended up staking £50. Edwards was convinced that Harry, who was still a toddler back then, would become a professional player after seeing how much he liked football.
It turned out that Edwards was right about his grandson all along. Wilson received his debut for Wales in October 2013 in a World Cup qualifier match against Belgium. At the age of 16, he became the youngest player ever to play for the national team. This resulted in a payout of £125,000 for his grandfather, who collected his winnings and happily retired soon after.
Dave Oancea, also known as Vegas Dave, is a renowned gambler in Las Vegas known for recording two of the biggest sports bets ever won in weeks. The first of the two wins happened with the UFC 13, where Oancea placed a $20,000 wager on the underdog Holly Holm to beat Ronda Rousey at 11 to 1 odds.
Many punters would have said that Oancea’s wager that day was foolish, especially with that kind of money. However, the fight proved him right as Holly Holm won shockingly, netting a massive $200,000 winnings. We will discuss Oancea’s second-biggest-ever bet win later.
Mick Gibbs is a famous British punter who is no stranger to big bets. A roofer by profession from Staffordshire, Gibbs showed that he has an eye for winning accumulator wagers on two notable occasions.
His first big win came at the turn of the century in 1999 when he placed a £2.50 stake on a 9-leg accumulator. The bet included various football games across Europe. Gibbs was correct on all nine predictions and landed a £157,000 payout. The punter would top this figure several years later with another impressive accumulator.
Richard Hopkins, a Peterborough resident, met Lewis Hamilton in 1998 when the legendary F1 driver was 13. At the time, Hamilton competed in go-kart racing alongside his son. Hopkins was greatly impressed by Hamilton’s skills behind the wheel, and he knew the boy had potential for greatness.
This prompted Hopkins to place a futures bet of £200 on Hamilton winning the Grand Prix before the age of 23 at 300/1 odds. Soon after, Hopkins placed another £100 on Hamilton winning the World Championship by the age of 25, offered at 500/1 odds. He also doubled down on his predictions by placing an additional £50 to combine these wagers at the price of 1,500/1.
It took almost a decade, but Hamilton ended up achieving both feats. He won his first F1 Grand Prix in 2007 at the age of 22, and his first World Championship in 2008 at the age of 23. Hopkins claimed a combined payout of £165,000.
In 2017, one unnamed bettor staked $8,500 on a 5-leg parlay at the MGM Resorts sportsbook in Las Vegas. They picked the Baltimore Ravens, New England Patriots, Kansas City Chiefs, Raiders, and Detroit Lions to win their upcoming matches.
After getting four correct predictions on Sunday, the punter was waiting for the outcome of the Monday Night Football game between the Lions, who were the underdogs, and the New York Giants. Detroit managed to get a 24-10 win, and the wager resulted in $250,000 in profits.
Leicester City winning the Premier League title in 2015-16 is one of the biggest surprises in modern football history. Not a lot of people believed that a team that was in danger of relegation the season before had any real chance to be on top of the standings. Even bookmakers put 5000/1 odds on this scenario, showing how unlikely it was that the outcome would happen.
After Leicester City had a promising start to the season, the bookies lowered the odds to 2,000. At that point, one anonymous punter believed the club could continue with great form and placed a £100 bet on them winning it all. The Foxes went on to play a season for ages and secured a £200,000 payout for the wagerer.
There were several other punters who also profited. A man named Leigh Herbert placed a mere £5 on 5000/1 odds while on holiday and won £20,600. Another gambler placed a £50 bet but decided to cash out £72,335 instead of waiting until the end of the season.
In 2016, an anonymous punter correctly selected 15 basketball game winners on a progressive parlay card. This included the Golden State Warriors’ win over the Oklahoma City Thunder despite trailing by 4 points with 14 seconds left in regulation. They paid a $5 participation fee at William Hill sportsbook and raked in $305,375.
Upswing Poker
An unorthodox big bet win that made our list is one that professional poker player Erick Lindgren made with his friends. The condition of the wager was that Erick had to play four consecutive rounds of golf and shoot under 100 on a single day. He had to do this while carrying his clubs and playing in the Las Vegas heat.
Surprisingly, Lindgren pulled it off and finished the game in 14 hours. Although he lost about 15 pounds and suffered heat stroke and dehydration, he walked away $340,000 richer.
Placing bets on your favorite teams rarely leads to big payouts. An anonymous St. Louis Cardinals fan didn’t seem to mind when they placed a $250 wager on their team to win the National League in 2011. They also backed the Cardinals to win the World Series with another $250 stake. At the time, the theme was coming off a year in which they failed to make the playoffs.
The Cardinals would go on to win 90 games in the regular season and begin an impressive playoff run that saw them lift the World Series trophy for the 11th time in their history. The punter received a total of $375,000 in winnings.
Phil Mickelson, one of the best golfers of all time, is also a sports bettor and an avid fan of the Baltimore Ravens. Seeing the team’s growing strength and talent leading up to the 2001 NFL season, Mickelson and his friends decided to wager on the Ravens winning the Super Bowl. They staked $20,000 on preseason odds of 28/1.
The Ravens would go on to reach the Super Bowl XXXV, where they defeated the New York Giants by 34-7. It resulted in one of the biggest bets won by a golfer, with $560,000 in profits for Mickelson and his friends.
Not too long after winning £157,000 on a 9-leg parlay, Mick Gibbs managed to secure another big payout with a tiny stake. In 2001, Gibbs placed a £0.30 bet on a 15-leg accumulator featuring predictions on various competition winners across Europe, including that Bayern Munich would win the UEFA Champions League finals. The combined odds of his selections stood at an incredible value of 1,666,666/1.
Unexpectedly, all of Gibbs’ predictions proved correct, winning him an astonishing figure of £500,000.
The US Sun
Winning all races they are a part of the racecard is an incredible achievement that any jockey would want to make. One jockey who managed to get it was Frankie Dettori, who achieved this feat in 1996 at Ascot by winning all of the event’s seven races. This feat was dubbed the “Magnificent Seven.”
However, Dettori wasn’t the only winner that day as one punter in particular experienced a life-changing windfall. Businessman Darren Yates, a big horse racing fan, placed a £62 bet with William Hill that Dettori would win all seven of his races that day at Ascot. Yates ended up taking home a payout of £550,000.
Another unlikely wager turned into one of the biggest parlay bets when an anonymous bettor from Malta put action on a 19-leg accumulator in 2011. They picked 19 selections, combined them into an accumulator bet with 683,738-1, and staked just 80 pence.
Despite the longshot nature of the parlay wager, all of the predictions were on point. This included Liverpool scoring a last-minute winning goal in a match against Chelsea. The bettor walked away with a massive win of £585,000.
NBA legend Charles Barkley is one of the many former athletes who enjoy sports betting. Over the years, Barkley had a few blunders but also some success stories. His biggest win came in 2002 when he placed an astonishing $500,000 wager on the New England Patriots against the St. Louis Rams in the Super Bowl.
The Patriots were the 14-point underdog, so Barkley bet they would cover the spread. New England ended up winning the game outright, landing the Hall of Famer $800,000 in winnings.
Tiger Woods is undeniably one of the best professional golfers in the history of the game. But in 2019, it seemed like he was not capable of performing at the highest level anymore. At that point, Woods hadn’t won a major championship for 11 years.
Despite this, Wisconsin punter James Adducci believed Woods still had one great performance in him. He went to Las Vegas and placed an $85,000 bet on Tiger Woods winning the 2019 Masters Tournament with William Hill at odds of 14-1.
This brave move shockingly paid off. Woods delivered a vintage performance to break his dry spell and win the tournament. Adducci got a massive payout of $1.2 million, which broke William Hill’s record for the largest bet ever won on futures.
Mike Futter, an Irish bingo hall owner, placed several wagers on Monty’s Pass, a horse he owned through Dee Racing Syndicate, to win at the Grand National at Aintree in 2003. Futter backed the horse at various prices, ranging between 66-1 and 16-1, in the months leading up to the event.
Monty’s Pass won the race, and Futter said on several occasions that he banked around £800,000 from his bets. He also received part of the £348,000 prize money.
After the successful wager, Futter admitted that while he has had some fantastic bets and days, this is one he will never forget. It is undeniably one of the biggest horse racing bets ever won.
In 2008, fertilizer salesman Fred Craggs walked into his local William Hill shop, picked eight horses, and placed a 50p accumulator on them. The combined odds totaled 2,800,000/1, so the Yorkshireman wasn’t overly confident about it. However, it ended up bringing him a life-changing fortune of £1 million.
Interestingly, Craggs had no idea that his wager had won until he returned to William Hill to place a new bet. If he had gone with the no-limit bet option, the winnings would have totaled £1.4 million, but the payout was still a million more than he expected. To make it even more memorable, this massive win came on the eve of his 60th birthday.
Steve Whiteley, a 61-year-old heating engineer from North Tawton in Devon, managed to land the biggest bet won in horse racing history in 2011. Whiteley, who had received a free ticket to the local horse race track in Exeter, used it to enjoy his day watching horse races. In the spirit of fun, Whiteley picked six horses and placed a £2 acca bet on them on the Tote Jackpot.
All of Whiteley’s selections won that day, including outside Lupita, which was priced at 12 to 1. After all of the deductions, he took home $1.45 million.
After winning $240,000 thanks to Holly Holm beating Ronda Rousey at UFC 193, Dave Oancea made another incredible big bet win in 2015. One week into the 2015 MLB season, Oancea placed a significant wager on the Kansas City Royals to win the World Series. The Royals were considered a long shot, with most bookies offering 30/1 odds.
An interesting detail about this wager is that no single casino was willing to accept Oancea’s full intended stake. Because of that, he had to spread his $140,000 bet across 15 casinos. It paid off, as the Royals had a dominant season that finished with a gentleman’s sweep of the New York Mets in the World Series. Oancea ended up winning a total of $2.5 million.
Billy Walters is another famous name in sports betting history. His gambling journey started with casino games and poker before he switched to wagering and found significant success. One of Walters’ biggest record-worthy wins happened when he decided to get in on the action during the 2010 Super Bowl XLIV.
After careful consideration, Walters placed a wager on the New Orleans Saints to beat the favored Indianapolis Colts. He believed the game was mispriced and that the two teams had equal chances of winning. The bet panned out as the Saints claimed an unexpected victory and netted him $3.5 million. Walters didn’t disclose how much he staked or the odds he took.
The Texas-based furniture store owner Jim McIngvale, better known as “Mattress Mack,” holds the bragging rights to the biggest sports bet win in history. This diehard Houston Astros fan placed a series of wagers on the team to win the 2022 World Series early in the season. It included staking $3 million with Caesars at 10/1 odds and $2 million with WynnBet.
Later in July, he wagered $2 million on the same outcome with BetMGM at 5/1 odds, $2 million with Barstool at 5.3/1 odds, and $1 million each on Unibet and Betfred at 5/1 odds. It totaled to a stake of $10 million.
The wager paid out as the Astros beat the Philadelphia Phillies in six games and won the World Series. Mattress Mack won $72.66 million that day, the biggest bet win in history. The most exciting part of this win is that, as he has done in most seasons, McIngvale used the bet as insurance on his “If Astros win, you win” promotion. Anyone who spent $3,000 or more in his store was able to get their money back if the Astros became champions.
Accumulator bets, often called “Accas” or parlays, combine the odds of multiple selections. With an accumulator, you won’t necessarily have to place an enormous stake or target long prices to have significant potential winnings.
The downside to acca wagers is that you have to be correct on all selections in order to get a payout. The more markets you include, the lower the chances of winning such a bet. Because of this, there have only been a few big accumulator wins worth mentioning. Let’s explore some history-making examples in this category:
Steve Whiteley’s incredible £1.5 million Tote jackpot win is often considered the biggest parlay bet ever won due to the small stake he invested. This heating engineer from North Tawton in Devon went to a local horse race track in Exeter after winning a free ticket. He placed a £2 Tote jackpot wager on six selections to win their races and received a £1.5 million payout.
However, if we only consider the payout, one Florida bettor takes this honor. They staked $500,000 on a 4-leg NFL parlay with Hard Rock sportsbook and won $5.5 million in 2023.
Back in the day, you would usually need to go to betting shops or horse race tracks to wager on the events you are interested in. Many of the biggest wins on our list went this way. However, thanks to the internet, you can now wager online anytime and from anywhere. Both old and new sportsbook brands now provide this type of betting experience. Besides the convenience, these bookmakers also offer bonuses and promotions to attract new customers or reward existing ones.
Nowadays, bookies will often limit the amount of money punters can win. However, some online bookmakers will offer higher maximum payouts than others. As expected, these sites are also the ones that have consistently paid out big betting wins.
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Some of the best bookies known for the highest maximum payout in 2025 include:
The list of bookmakers that are known to provide big bet payouts to their users also includes:
Aside from offering the highest maximum payouts, these sportsbooks have competitive odds, plenty of betting markets, several convenient payment methods, and helpful customer support.
A key factor in choosing the best live betting prediction sites is the range of available payment methods. Most bookies offer multiple payment options, though the selection varies between platforms. So, ensure that the website supports your preferred solution before you sign up.
Payment methods usually have limits when it comes to the amount of money you can withdraw at any point in time. Also, some bookmakers have different maximum payout allowed for different payment systems. For example, the most popular options, like bank transfers, e-wallets, and crypto, typically have higher limits.
Promotions and bonuses are a common feature in sports betting. They come in various forms, such as welcome bonuses, free wagers, no-deposit bonuses, and cashback. Bookmakers design these offers to attract new users and retain punters on their platforms.
These incentives provide additional betting funds, allowing you to place more bets and explore different strategies. Therefore, they give you more chances to land huge payouts, especially regarding parlays and accumulators.
However, bookmakers are not in the business of giving out free money. They often attach terms and conditions to their incentives, such as limits on maximum payouts. As a result, all promotions cap the maximum payout you can receive when using the bonus, regardless of the odds. For example, you may get a £10 free bet that comes with a maximum potential payout of £250.
Before attempting to hit big betting wins with promotions, check out their terms and conditions.
It is possible to win big by wagering on sports, as shown by our list of the largest bets ever won. Let’s examine three distinct ways this can happen.
The first method is to put a sizable stake on high odds. As a result, any winnings you get from the wager would be massive if your prediction proved correct. A typical example is Mattress Mack’s series of bets totaling $10 million on the Houston Astros at prices between 5/1 and 11/1 across different sportsbooks.
The second possibility is to put a decent stake on a single event that bookmakers perceive to be highly unlikely. An example would be the wagers placed on Leicester City winning the Premier League title with odds of 5000/1 and 2000/1.
The third and last method is to create an accumulator wager. Many punters create 5-leg or larger accumulators with massive combined odds and place a small stake on them. Steve Whiteley’s £1.5 million win on a six-leg accumulator with just a £2 bet is one example.
However, you should also know the downsides of each method before trying it for your big bet win. The first one is highly risky. Mattress Mack could have easily lost the $10 million if the Astros had not won the World Series. The second option is quite luck-dependent. After all, nobody could have imagined that a struggling team like Leicester City would win the league. The third one comes with slim chances of winning because it requires that every prediction you make be accurate. When skilled bettors aim for big betting wins, they use the method that is best for them while considering responsible gambling.
Our examples of the biggest betting wins in sports show that punters can, through sheer luck and strategic predictions, achieve massive payouts. Here are some valuable tips to remember to improve your chances if you want to hit it big.
| Tips | Explanation |
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| Choose your bets wisely | While luck plays a role in punters getting big betting wins, knowledge and skills are very important. So, ensure you choose your wagers wisely. Research the bets you want to place and stay informed on all the relevant news and updates. |
| Don’t bet on odds that exceed the maximum payout | There are times when sports betting enthusiasts winning are so large that they exceed the maximum payout that a sportsbook allows. It is especially important when considering an accumulator, which usually combines the odds of multiple selections. You could risk your wager by adding extra legs that won’t provide additional value due to the maximum payout. So, make sure only to target value odds. |
| Be realistic with your wagers | You typically won’t get massive returns without tremendous odds or risking an enormous stake amount. You should avoid the latter option if you cannot afford to lose. So, you should be realistic with your wager and enjoy the ride while accepting that losing will always be possible. |
| Compare different sportsbooks | Another essential truth about sports betting is that the odds offered on various outcomes usually vary from bookmaker to book. So, it’s often best to shop around different bookmakers to find the best odds and even more generous bonus and promotional offers. |
Sports betting is challenging. This is especially true for wagers with high odds and accumulators capable of triggering big payouts. However, the likes of Mick Gibbs, Vegas Dave, and Steve Whiteley show that impressive wins are still possible.
Success in sports betting generally depends on your knowledge, skills, strategy, and luck. A big payout is never guaranteed, but it is a possibility. So, when aiming for substantial profits, wager wisely. Don’t risk more than you can afford to lose, and remember to have fun.
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