Punter's $175,000 disaster in crazy college basketball decider
The NCAA championship didn’t break the way Texas Tech would have liked – nor an unlucky punter who lost out on a potential $AU174,000 windfall.
The Action Network’s Darren Rovell reported an anonymous bettor placed a $1500 bet on Texas Tech to win the NCAA tournament back in November.
At the time, Texas Tech were at laughably long odds to win the tournament, having only made it to the top eight once it its history.
If it paid off, the bet would have been worth $300,000.
The man who holds this $1,500 bet on Texas Tech to win $300,000 got offers to sell this on @PropSwap today for up to $125,000. He passed. No idea on his hedge strategy, but told he does have a position on Virginia. pic.twitter.com/XOl9Ey6RAP
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) April 8, 2019
While the bet was a long shot when it was first made, Texas Tech’s surprising surge through the NCAA tournament gained widespread attention – along with the massive bet.
With the odds of a major payout becoming increasingly favourable with each Texas win, people started making offers for the massive ticket – including former Dallas Cowboys receiver Dez Bryant, who claimed on Twitter that he had bid ’50k’ for the ticket.
My 50k got turned down https://t.co/95GUnMRRgH
— Dez Bryant (@DezBryant) April 5, 2019
Bids reached as much as $125,000 for the ticket, which was still declined.
Unfortunately for the anonymous bettor, their decision to stay loyal to Texas Tech saw them leave a truly whopping amount of money on the table.
According to Rovell, it wasn’t to be all doom and gloom – the gambler had hedged their bet, although exactly how much they were covered for is unknown.
Texas Tech came agonisingly close to winning it all, leading by three with less than 15 seconds on the clock in the second half.
But a DeAndre Hunter triple levelled the score for the University of Virginia Cavaliers, who ultimately went on to claim an 85-77 win in overtime.
