It’s basic to say now that we have a year behind us, but looking back at 2025, some betting decisions may have been… miscalculated.
Some examples:
Last season, DraftKings said it placed a $25,000 bet on the Las Vegas Raiders to win the Super Bowl at 100-1. The Raiders would not win the Super Bowl.
102 entries to Circa Survivor, a high-stakes NFL survivor competition run by a Las Vegas casino, did not submit their picks by the weekly deadline this season and were eliminated. The tournament buy-in was $1,000 and the prize pool was $18.7 million.
Kalshi Prediction Market noted that one of its clients invested $183,954 in social media influencer-turned-boxer Jake Paul to defeat vigorous two-time heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua. Paul was hospitalized with a broken jaw thanks to Joshua’s devastating right hand during the knockout victory. Live and learn, right?
This year hasn’t been a bad one for gamblers at all. There have been several betting success stories that have had bookmaking executives lamenting to shareholders about “customer-friendly results” or begging gambling regulators to allow them to void angle shooting contracts altogether. Despite these setbacks, the betting industry is expected to survive the up-to-date year.
As we reflect on the year in betting, we wish you fewer miscalculations in 2026.
The craziest bets of 2025
January 9: A DraftKings bettor placed a 50-cent 19-game college basketball bet at odds of +43,473,946. All 19 teams covered the spread; 17 of them came from compact conferences, including Stetson, Jacksonville and IU Indianapolis.
The 50-cent jackpot won $217,370.23.
January 28: A DraftKings bettor placed a $1,000 bet on Indiana Hoosiers quarterback Fernando Mendoza to win the Heisman Trophy at odds of 100-1. Eleven months later, in December, Mendoza received the Heisman Award, which resulted in a net winning of $100,000.
February 9: The Philadelphia Eagles defeated the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX 40-22. BetMGM customers lost more money on the Super Bowl than on any other game in any sport in 2025, according to the bookmaker.
April 21: Sportsbooks began noticing an unusual spike in home run bets on Wednesday morning at the start of the MLB season. The bets were not on Aaron Judge or Shohei Ohtani. They involved Nick Castellanos, a journeyman outfielder for the Philadelphia Phillies and the subject of an Internet meme that has earned him a reputation for returning home on gigantic news days.
“We started looking around to see what was going on and we saw that the Pope had died,” recalled BetMGM’s Halvor Egeland.
Egeland said BetMGM rarely charges enough on a home run bet to adjust the odds, but it did that day, dropping Castellanos from +775 to +550. This didn’t leisurely down the action. By the end of the day, more bets had been placed on Castellanos’ homer than on any other team or player in all sports.
Castellanos went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts in the Phillies’ 5-4 loss to the Novel York Mets.
June 5: A bettor from Ohio with BetMGM placed a bet An $8 million bet on the heavily favored Oklahoma City Thunder, who defeated the Indiana Pacers in the NBA Finals at -700 odds.
The Thunder defeated the Pacers in seven games, with bettors net winning $1.42 million.
June 15: JJ Spaun shot 150-1 to win the US Open. Spaun had the best chance to win of any player since Phil Mickelson (200-1) won the 2021 PGA Championship.
June 24: An Arizona bettor using BetMGM placed three gigantic bets on the winner of the College Football Playoff:
$300,000 to Texas at 5-1 $200,000 at Penn State at +750 $115,000 for Clemson at 13-1
All three teams missed the CFP.
June 25: The Dallas Mavericks selected Cooper Flagg with the No. 1 overall pick in the NBA Draft. The Mavericks were 500-1 to select Flagg, the highest odds of any futures bet offered by DraftKings in 2026.
August 23: Heading into the college football season, North Carolina, under first-year coach Bill Belichick, attracted the same amount of money and wagering to win the national championship as Indiana on BetMGM Sportsbook. The Hoosiers finished the season undefeated and entered the CFP with the top seed, while the Tar Heels finished 4-8.
August 30: A DraftKings bettor picked the winner of all 15 MLB games this Saturday, who won $125,088.36 in a $5 15-game bet deal.
August 31: A FanDuel player followed beloved college football personality Lee Corso College Gameday final picks and won $1,317.18 in a six-game $10 giveaway that included outright wins over Florida State and Alabama. Corso retired from the series this year.
September 7: The Buffalo Bills staged a remarkable comeback by beating the Baltimore Ravens 41-40 on Sunday in the first week of the NFL season. According to the bookmaker, this transaction resulted in the largest winnings in any game for BetMGM customers this year. In an earnings call, DraftKings said the Bills-Ravens partnership had the biggest loss in the sportsbook’s history.
September 11: A bettor at Caesars Sportsbook risked $715,000 on +140 underdog Terence Crawford to defeat Canelo Alvarez and netted $985,000 as Crawford won by unanimous decision.
October 15: A Massachusetts bettor operating DraftKings placed 27 parlay bets centered on how many hits Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Nathan Lukes would have in the American League Championship Series game against the Seattle Mariners. The player risked $12,950 for a chance to win $934,147.83.
DraftKings has informed the Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC) that a technical error allowed a bettor to include Luke’s five-plus, six-plus, seven-plus and eight-plus hits during the ALCS in sports betting to boost the odds. Lukes had nine hits in the ALCS.
DraftKings told MGC it believes the player’s relative is among six customers in Novel Jersey who also placed a similar bet on Lukes, resulting in a $1.8 million winnings. Gaming regulators in Massachusetts and Novel Jersey rejected DraftKings’ request to void the bets.
November 2: A week after National Tight End Day, a bettor at Caesars Sportsbook bet on five tight ends and scored the first touchdown of his parlay series. Four of the five players – Theo Johnson of the Novel York Giants, Tyler Higbee of the Los Angeles Rams, Dalton Kincaid of the Bills and Sam LaPorta of the Detroit Lions – returned the win to the bettor, resulting in winnings of approximately $111,000.
“The customer bet on each combination of these five selections and bet $2.50 per leg, and the potential winnings were just under $2 million,” said Joey Feazel of Caesars Sportsbook. “Although the bettor missed all five, he hit four of five, allowing him to win over $111,000. A fantastic investment for the bettor.”
December 7: A Demanding Rock BET bettor placed a $1.20 bet involving all college basketball players, resulting in a payout of $344,902.81. According to the company, at +34,490,181, this is the highest ever odds for a successful deal at Demanding Rock BET.
December 8: A Fanatics bettor placed $1.47 million on a four-game NFL bet in Week 14, netting him $1.86 million, the sportsbook’s biggest winning bet of the year. Four legs: Rams money line over Arizona Cardinals; Green Bay Packers Moneyline over Chicago Bears; and Denver Broncos over Raiders and under at Pittsburgh Steelers-Ravens (alternate line).
December 14: The player successfully predicted that a player would score the first touchdown in five NFL games, turning a 10-cent winnings into a payout of $7,356.80.
The World Boxing Organization has responded to Floyd Schofield’s deleted claims, with president Gustavo Olivieri urging the lightweight fighter to hand over any evidence he has to law enforcement agencies, including the FBI.
Schofield, who remains the mandatory challenger to Gervonta Davis under a separate WBA order, appeared to make the allegations on social media before deleting the post.
What exactly Schofield said remains unclear.
The concern faded away before many had a chance to see it, but Olivieri’s response left no doubt as to the seriousness of the concerns raised.
“Hey, Master!” Olivieri began.
“If you have credible evidence, documentation, witness statements, or other credible information that suggests corruption, bribery, fraud, abuse of power, or any other unlawful conduct involving a WBO official, I encourage you to submit such information to the appropriate law enforcement authorities, including the FBI or other appropriate agencies, so that it may be appropriately reviewed and investigated.”
Olivieri also advised Schofield to seek legal advice if he believed he had been wrongly denied opportunities.
“If you believe that another sanctioning authority has wrongly denied you an opportunity, you may wish to consult a lawyer experienced in boxing to assess your situation and advise you of any rights and remedies that may be available to you.”
Second time
The exchange marks the second time in recent months that Olivieri has publicly urged someone in the boxing world to contact the FBI if there is evidence to support allegations involving the sport’s governing body.
This also reflects a trend that is becoming more and more common in the world of boxing social media.
Rather than private discussions, formal complaints, or legal channels, complaints are often brought to the public before being later clarified – if they are clarified at all.
The moment is noteworthy as Schofield remains at the center of the ongoing WBA situation involving Davis. With the deadline still looming and Davis lacking a viable return option, the undefeated contender has repeatedly applied pressure via social media.
Schofield quickly backed down, although the reaction his words provoked soon overshadowed the complaint itself.
Floyd Schofield
Public forum
Posts like Schofield’s are becoming common, and sanctioning authorities are increasingly responding to criticism, accusations and frustration in public places.
Every ranking, exemption, must-see and championship ruling is now analyzed in minutes.
Even under Olivieri’s post, users immediately questioned several recent WBO decisions, including allowing Janibek Alimkhanuly to retain his title despite his long absence and installing Keyshawn Davis as the mandatory challenger to Shakur Stevenson, even though Davis has never fought for the 147-pound title or fought for the 140-weight title.
It may never be known whether Schofield’s fears were justified.
But when boxers go public with their concerns along with fans, the job of sanctioning authorities becomes much more arduous.
About the author
Phil Jay is the editor-in-chief of World Boxing News (WBN) and a boxing veteran with over 15 years of experience. Read the full biography.
Dave Allen has predicted how compatriot Conor Benn will fare if he faces Ryan Garcia later this year.
Both pairs are to break off contact with each other before the end of 2026, but the date and place of their fight for the world title have not been officially announced.
It is alleged that Dana White’s Zuffa Boxing never obtained consent from Golden Boy to proceed with the fight between Benn and Garcia, who is reportedly still under contract with Oscar De La Hoya’s promotional team.
At the same time, White stated at the Zuffa Boxing 07 post-fight press conference that announcements were imminent regarding the Garcia-Benn fight, which is scheduled to take place in Las Vegas.
This would mean “King Ry” will make his first defense of the WBC welterweight title he won by unanimous decision over Mario Barrios in February.
Meanwhile, Benn is the mandatory challenger for the WBC 147-pound title, even though he hasn’t made that weight since stopping Chris van Heerden in the second round in 2022.
“At first glance, I can’t imagine Conor being good enough to beat Garcia. Conor is a good fighter, don’t get me wrong.
“I think he’s good, he’s really athletic, but [I] just place Garcia in the top bracket. In my opinion, it will be possible to stop Garcia. I think it’s probably a level or two above where we saw Conor. But it’s an captivating fight.”
Indeed, Benn has yet to establish himself as a world-class operator, even after back-to-back points victories over faded versions of Chris Eubank Jr and Regis Prograis.
“This man said he wanted the number 144,” Bill told Fight Hub TV. “He said, ‘We’ve got to sit down like businessmen and make this happen,’ right? Well, we’ve already sat down like businessmen. We’re ready to make it happen.”
Elder Haney also rejected suggestions that the catchweight proposal would represent a sudden change of plans.
“It’s not so sudden. 144 is a welterweight. Are you crazy or what?” Haney said. “At welterweight, we range from 140 to 147.”
As the conversation turned to Keyshawn Davis and his position as a top contender for the WBO title, Haney repeatedly pointed to what he believed to be a better opportunity.
“What is the most significant boxing fight going on right now?” Haney asked. “Shakur Stevenson and Devin Haney.”
Haney acknowledged that Davis remains part of the bigger picture, but pointed out that Stevenson’s matchup has been years in the making.
“This case has been brewing for seven, eight, nine, 10 years, whatever it was,” Haney said. “Just rest and we’ll get it done. He’s on the list. He was on the list before he was on the list, and he’ll stay on the list.”
Time will tell if the fight comes to fruition, but Bill Haney’s comments were perhaps the strongest indication yet that Team Haney is sedate about racing Stevenson at the proposed catchweight of 144 pounds.
The situation could become more complicated if the WBO formally orders Haney to fulfill his mandatory obligation to Davis. Until then, it appears the Haneys are turning their attention to what they believe is the biggest fight available.
Dan Ambrose is a boxing journalist at Boxing News 24, respected for his direct analysis and extensive coverage of the global fight landscape. His reports focus on the most significant fights, division development and the most discussed stories in sports.
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