One sports bettor called his shot in February that the Spurs would win the Western Conference.
His confidence and a well-timed $2,500 futures parlay paid off handsomely when the clock hit zero in Oklahoma City after Game 7 of the Conference finals.
The bettor, known as the Parlay Prince on social media, won $1.7 million on a four-leg parlay at DraftKings Sportsbook that included Team USA men’s hockey team to win gold at the Olympics (+180), Michigan’s basketball team to win the national championship (+500), the Knicks to win the Eastern Conference (+330) and the Spurs to win the West (+850).
At the time, the Spurs had beaten the Thunder four times, the Knicks were coming off a blowout win against the 76ers, and Michigan was on a nine-game winning streak in college basketball.
Each of those bets needed epic runs to snap historic streaks of championship futility. Before this year, Team USA’s hockey team had not won gold since 1980, Michigan hadn’t won a national title since 1989, the Spurs hadn’t been to the NBA Finals since 2014, and the Knicks’ Finals drought stretched back to 1999.
Most impressively, this bettor refused to take the cash-out offer from DraftKings despite the Spurs facing elimination in Game 6 and Game 7. Before Game 6, the cash-out offer was $293,273. Entering Game 7, a spot where Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder were 2-0 in his career, he was offered $612, 212.
“I was thinking the cash out would be closer to $1,000,000,” he said. “DraftKings set it at $612,000. I think that’s fairly low for a one-game, winner-take-all. At $1,000,000, I was considering cashing out, doubling down half of that Spurs moneyline, but being that they didn’t [offer that], it’s just fate.”
Game 7 ended up being every bit the roller coaster ride that fans experienced in Game 1 of the series. The Spurs jumped ahead by 14, the Thunder took leads shortly before and after halftime, but the Spurs proved to be too much.
Luke Kornet had a chase-down block on an Isaiah Hartenstein dunk that would have made it a four-point game and instead fueled a fast break opportunity for the Spurs to go up by eight with six minutes to go. The Spurs were able to stifle the Thunder’s offense the rest of the way and pull off the huge win for the Parlay Prince.
“All you gotta do is believe,” he posted to social media from Paycom Arena after the game. “If you can believe it, you can achieve it.”
“For now, we’re going to take in this moment, and we’re going to live it up,” he added. “$1.7 million betting sports. I love everybody, even the haters.”
Why Trust New York Post Betting
Malik Smith has been immersed in the sports betting industry since 2017. He’s a data nerd with a particular focus on the NBA and combat sports. He spends his weeknights in the winter looking for edges on plus-money NBA player props.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
