Lady luck paid a sports bettor at the MGM Resorts in Mississippi a visit as he came away $131,200 richer for hitting all eight football games of a parlay after betting $900 on the multi-team play.
A parlay is defined as a single bet on multiple games at a single time. To emerge victorious on the parlay, not a single game in the group can be a losing bet. The challenge of stringing up several wins in a row makes the payout much higher than if the bettor bets on each game individually. If a game results in a push, that bet is taken away from the parlay and the bettor can still win.
All the games on the parlay ticket were American football games — four in college and four in the NFL preseason.
In college, the picks were Cincinnati (-2.5) prevailing over UCLA, Tulane (-3) taking the win against Florida International, Clemson first half (-24) over Georgia Tech, and Texas A&M first half (-20.5) over Texas State. All were favorites.
Cincinnati and Tulane won their games in dominant fashion while Texas A&M cruised to a 28-0 halftime advantage. Clemson, which is the defending national champs, had the closest call, also winning the first half 28-0.
In the NFL portion, the bettor picked Buffalo (+3) over Minnesota, New York Giants (+3) over New England, Atlanta (+4.5) over Jacksonville, and Miami (+4) over New Orleans. All were underdogs at that time.
Miami won outright and Atlanta crushed Jacksonville. However, the two other games proved to be nail-biters as Buffalo was losing 23-6 with less than four minutes left against Minnesota. But the Bills eventually rallied and scored on three touchdowns, including one with just eight seconds left to get a 27-23 win.
The Giants game was also a close one as they were losing by 10 in the fourth quarter. They ended up scoring two touchdowns to win by 2 (a two-point conversion was missed). The Giants were also losing by 19 at halftime. It took a 14-yard touchdown pass by Kyle Lauletta to Alonzo Russell with no time left for the Giants to snatch the victory.
The Beau Rivage Resort & Casino in Biloxi and Gold Strike Casino Resort in Tunica were the very first two casinos to take sports bets in Mississippi. Both MGM properties accepted their first wagers at noon on August 1st, 2018.
Mississippi was the third state to launch sports betting after PASPA was overturned by the Supreme Court last year.
Allen Godfrey, executive director of the Mississippi Gaming Commission, recently expressed his happiness with how the first year of sports betting turned out. In the first twelve months, wagers totaled $300 million. Mississippi does not have mobile sports betting, just brick-and-mortar.
