Betting by the numbers: 2024 in review

tsbooks are on pace to handle an estimated $130 billion in bets in 2024, up approximately 8% from the previous year.

American sportsbooks are on pace to handle an estimated $130 billion in bets in 2024, up approximately 8% from the previous year.

The Super Bowl, an overtime thriller won again by the Kansas City Chiefs, was the most-heavily bet single game of 2024, sportsbooks say, and a sanctioned boxing match between 27-year-old Jake Paul and 58-year-old Mike Tyson set betting records for the amount wagered on a fight. The Boston Celtics and Dallas Mavericks attracted more bets than any team in any sport in 2024 at ESPN BET, and bettors lost more money betting on Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce than any other player at BetMGM.

An 85-cent "all I had left in my account" bet from February sold last week for five figures. A 19-leg college football parlay on the final week of the season came down to a 2-point conversion, and, in December, a bettor in Kentucky placed one of the largest bets ever reported on an NFL regular-season game. But our pick for wildest wager of 2024 took place on a Saturday night in November.

2024's wildest bet: Two shots for glory

The NBA's four-game slate on Nov. 9 lacked marquee matchups and star power. After surveying the betting options at FanDuel, a bettor landed on a $5 two-leg parlay featuring the Utah Jazz's Walker Kessler and the Brookyln Nets' Dorian Finney-Smith. They bet on Walker and Finney-Smith to each score the first baskets in their respective games and how they would do it.

FanDuel offers odds on several methods of scoring when wagering on the first basket of a game: a dunk, free throw, layup, 3-pointer and "other," which covers things such as floaters and midrange jumpers. It's all determined by how the NBA records the basket in its play-by-play scoring.

Kessler opened the scoring against the San Antonio Spurs with a 3-foot jump-hook, while Finney-Smith hit a one-handed floater from just outside the paint on the baseline to cash the parlay. The parlay's odds: 22,700-1. It paid $113,500.

The bettor could not be reached for comment.

An epic 85-cent all-in parlay

It was the morning after the Super Bowl, around 10 a.m. ET, Monday, Feb. 12 in Baltimore. A 26-year-old construction worker and longtime sports bettor has 85 cents left in his FanDuel account. Intrigued by his buddy's picks, he elects to go all-in -- on a 14-leg, multisport parlay with +173,000-1 odds that wouldn't be decided until January 2025.

The bet opened with Over 363.5 points in the NBA All-Star Game. It had seven division winners in the NBA and NHL, alongside four boxing matches,UConnwinning the men's college basketball national championship and concluded withOhio Stateto win the College Football Playoff.

"I tailed that bet from my friend," the bettor -- who asked to be referred to as @unitmetric, his username on X (formerly Twitter) -- told ESPN in a direct message. "All the NBA bets on the slip are strictly from him. He got the NHL plays from our group chat. He loved Ohio State for the

The Buckeyes, who face No. 1 Oregon in a College Football Playoff quarterfinal on New Year's Day, are all that remains on the ticket that would pay out $147,507.44.

He considered taking the sportsbook's early cashout offers several times, especially ahead of the May 18 heavyweight bout between Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury. FanDuel was offering $7,000 to cashout at the time.

"I thought

Usyk won a split-decision, and the parlay, at +17,353,716 odds, was down to its last leg entering the college football season.

In November, after Ohio State lost to Michigan, he began trying to sell the parlay on online secondary markets that allow pending bets to be bought and sold. The ticket sold for $16,750 on online market WagerWire on Dec. 20, ahead of Ohio State's opening playoff game against Tennessee. The Buckeyes beat the Volunteers 42-17.

Settling for $279,000

The biggest long-shot bet to hit