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.
Mike Tyson is nearing the end of his career as Floyd Mayweather’s recent cancellation of an exhibition may have put the final nail in the coffin.
Tyson’s Hall of Fame tenure, which incredibly extended at the age of 57 against Jake Paul in 2024, was approaching his final appearance against Mayweather.
The fight had been talked about for months as if it had actually happened. A date was set, attention was paid, but the reality never lived up to the headlines as the proposed event failed to advance beyond early discussion and quietly faded away.
There was a lack of explanation, space and real emphasis. In the case of a Floyd Mayweather event, this is usually the biggest prize.
When Mayweather wants a fight, he promotes it. This time he didn’t.
Instead, Mayweather moved on. His confirmed return against Mike Zambidis in Athens made it clear what his focus was, leaving the Tyson fight on the sidelines – most likely for good.
Time and injuries
Time has also caught up with this idea.
Tyson will turn 60 in June, and his next fights will be a huge surprise considering everything that has already happened.
He almost died when Paul’s fight was postponed from April to November two years ago, which Tyson himself later detailed after an in-flight medical emergency left the former champion fighting for his life.
That alone should be a warning.
Combine that with previous back surgery, appearing in a cast on his arm just last month, and the massive amounts of marijuana Mike is consuming, and another comeback seems unthinkable.
Tyson has been through a lot, but it’s a completely different situation for the hard-hitting Modern Yorker.
Ariel Helwani show
The last chapter
The Mayweather fight was the one that could have sent Mike flying with fanfare.
It had the name, the curiosity and the setting that could allow Tyson to make one last appearance without everything that comes with a full comeback.
Now that’s gone and it looks like his fight with Paul is all she wrote.
World Boxing News has already reported that Tyson’s former rival, Oliver McCall, is continuing to fight at the age of 61, but Tyson was never that type of fighter.
If he does not regain full health in the coming months, boxing fans will likely see the last of the youngest heavyweight champion of all time.
At this point, the opportunity has passed and nothing else on the table carries the same weight.
Mainly because it feels like Mike Tyson’s swan song has already happened.
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. Since 2010, he has interviewed world champions, published exclusive international performances and reported on in-ring performances. His work is distributed on major platforms including Apple News. Read the full biography.
Naoya Inoue received another career-defining challenge before she even stepped into the ring against Junto Nakatani.
First and foremost, “The Monster” must defend his undisputed super bantamweight crown against Nakatani on May 2, headlining the blockbuster Japanese event at the Tokyo Dome.
This will mark Inoue’s seventh defense of his four major 122-pound titles, and the uncompromising feeling has been considered the top star of the two-pound-for-pound division.
The 33-year-old’s most notable victories came against the likes of Luis Nery and Ramon Cardenas, who both defeated the undisputed two-division champion but were ultimately stopped in rounds six and eight, respectively.
Meanwhile, Nakatani is widely considered to be Inoue’s toughest opponent to date, even though the three-division world champion lost debatable points of victory over Sebastian Hernandez in December last year.
However, to be fair, this was his first appearance at 122 pounds and many expected the 28-year-old to raise his level against Inoue.
However, in a world where Inoue is winning, it is becoming more and more likely that he will consider a potential fight with Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez.
The unified super flyweight champion will move up to 118 pounds for his next fight, where he will face WBA champion Antonio Vargas on June 13.
If this next assignment is successful, Rodriguez will talk about it Ring Magazine that he will jump up another weight class to face Inoue.
“I’m ready at any time. If I was offered this fight right now, I would definitely accept it.”
Although Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn has confirmed initial talks about the fight, there is equally a chance that “Bam” will drop down to 115 pounds in pursuit of undisputed glory.
Alan “Veneno” Chaves (22-0, 19 KO) defeated Miguel “Explosivo” Madueno (31-5, 28 KO) in the third round to win the WBO Latino lightweight title in the co-main event at Fontainebleau Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Chaves started the action early and found success with pointed shots once the fight started. The finish came when he landed a crushing left hand that dropped Madueno tough. Referee Harvey Dock waved it off at 1:26 of the third round. The power Chaves showed today makes him a threat to anyone at 135 or 140.
Damian Sosa annoys Freudis Rojas Jr.
Damian Sosa (27-3, 13 KO) defeated previously undefeated Freudis Rojas Jr. after 10 rounds by unanimous decision. (15-1, 11 KO) in the junior middleweight fight by 96-93 points. Sosa applied constant pressure early on, forcing Rojas to fight at a pace he was never comfortable with. He knocked down Rojas in the sixth round and maintained control with constant striking and excellent timing. Rojas had his moments, but Sosa’s experience and engine made the difference.
Nishant Dev stops Juan Carlos Guerra Jr.
Junior middleweight Nishant Dev (6-0, 4 KO) defeated Juan Carlos Guerra Jr. (6-3-1, 2 KO) in the second round of the scheduled eight-round fight. Dev came out pointed and aggressive, taking command with true combinations. He knocked down Guerra in the second round and kept the pressure going until the referee stopped it at the end of the session. The victory would give Dev another quick end and he could continue his early professional career.
Angel Barrientes passes Luis Espinoza
Featherweight Angel Barrientes (15-1, 9 KO) won an eight-round unanimous decision over Luis Espinoza (10-2, 4 KO) by three points, 80-72. Barrientes controlled the fight with spotless boxing and energetic attacking from the first bell. He beat Espinoza multiple times and gave little in return. Espinoza stayed on the pitch throughout the match, but Barrientes was in control throughout the match.
Robert Segal is a boxing reporter at Boxing News 24 with over a decade of experience covering fight news, previews and analysis. Known for his first-hand reporting and in-ring perspective, he delivers authoritative coverage of champions, challengers and emerging talent from around the world.
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