From Super Bowl Sunday to World Cup glory: the $500 parlay that paid out $30,000

A $500 bet placed on Super Bowl Sunday, 8 February, finally paid out on Saturday night after Brazil, Germany, Spain and Argentina all won their respective World Cup groups, completing a 10-leg multi-sport parlay at odds of +5944 and delivering a $29,722 profit — a total payout of $30,222 — to a FanDuel Sportsbook customer.

The wager was an unlikely combination of a Super Bowl player prop, men’s tennis, Olympic hockey and curling, college basketball and NHL markets, with four World Cup group-winner legs tacked on for good measure. The parlay had been sitting live since February, with the final four legs only becoming relevant once the Colorado Avalanche reached the Western Conference finals in May. From that point, a six-week wait began before the World Cup group stage settled the ticket.

Not every ambitious multi-sport parlay found the same happy ending. A Fanatics Sportsbook customer constructed a 17-leg combination spanning NBA Finals and UFC markets before adding all 12 World Cup group winners. The bettor placed $100 at odds of +25833 and used a 100% profit-boost promotion to push those odds to +51667 — nearly 517/1 — setting up a potential $51,777 payout. England winning Group L brought the ticket to 16 successful legs, but Portugal’s 0-0 draw with Colombia on Saturday night meant Colombia took Group K and the parlay fell at the final hurdle.

A separate Fanatics customer, posting on X as @JDGoldboys, came even closer to a life-changing sum. The bettor placed $500 on a four-leg parlay requiring Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappé, Erling Haaland and Harry Kane to each score two or more goals across matches last Monday and Tuesday. Messi, Mbappé and Haaland all delivered, and with only Kane’s performance against Ghana remaining, a cash-out option worth more than $121,000 was available. The bettor declined, holding out for a payout approaching $800,000 — only for Kane to fall short of the two-goal requirement, ending the ticket.