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How a Bettor Won Over $23,000 With a $10 March Madness Parlay on DraftKings Sportsbook

Zach Thompson breaks down how a sports bettor turned $10 into a huge profit with a March Madness College Basketball Parlay on DraftKings Sportsbook.

By Zach Thompson
NCAA Basketball: NCAA Tournament Second Round-Penn State vs Texas Reese Strickland-USA TODAY Sports

The College Basketball season continues to work its way to an exciting conclusion, and March Madness brings with it plenty of great ways to get involved in the action on DraftKings Sportsbook every night.

While the field of 64 was reduced all the way down to 16 with plenty of upsets along the way, one shrewd bettor looked through all the many matchups and built a complex Parlay bet that resulted in a monster payout.

Each pick in the 11-leg parlay was an under, so this bettor must be a big fan of defense. It definitely paid off in this case as the $10 Parlay had +117798 odds, meaning with a 100% profit boost, the payout was a massive $23,569.65. Check out the list of the picks here and scroll for more details as to how it all unfolded.

Check out Stepped Up Same Game Parlays on DraftKings Sportsbook for big profit boosts! The more legs in the parlay, the bigger the boost! See the Stepped Up Same Game Parlays page for more details!

Before we dive in, just a quick reminder that a parlay bet is a bet placed on multiple outcomes to occur. A parlay bet cashes when all outcomes within the parlay are selected correctly. You can learn more about how they work in the DraftKings Sportsbook How To Bet Guide!

While most of the under picks assembled in this parlay were for games throughout the day on Saturday, the first matchup tipped off Friday night. Kent State took on Indiana in the Round of 64.

The fourth-seeded Hoosiers got 24 points from Trayce Jackson-Davis, who earned his way into the record books as the first player to have at least 20 points, 10 boards, five blocks and five assists in an NCAA Tournament game since blocks became an official stat in 1986. His work on both ends of the floor kept the game total at 131, comfortably under the total of 140.5. Jackson-Davis and the Hoosiers couldn’t get past the Hurricanes on Sunday, but they had already secured the first win of this Parlay with their win over Kent State.

On Saturday, the bettor selected three games from the Discount Tire College Basketball Invitational (CBI) and two games from the National Invitational Tournament (NIT). The No. 16 seed USC Upstate put a scare in the top-rated Indiana State Sycamores, who escaped and advanced. The line was set for that contest at 157.5, but the total ended up just 129. The wins by No. 4 Southern Utah over North Alabama and No. 2 San Jose State over Southern Indiana were also comfortably under their totals to keep the parlay rolling.

In the first of the two second-round NIT games on Saturday, Vanderbilt staged an impressive comeback to beat Michigan in a matchup of teams coached by former NBA stars. Jerry Stackhouse’s Commodores edged out Juwan Howard’s Wolverines by one point after rallying from eight points down with just 60 seconds left. Michigan couldn’t solve Vandy’s full-court trap, and since the teams didn’t need overtime the total stayed under the line of 148 with a total of 131.

In the other NIT matchup, Cincinnati rolled past Hofstra, holding the Pride to just 28 points in the second half. Not only did that give the Bearcats the 14-point win, it also kept the total well under the line of 151 at only 144.

The closest calls for this Parlay definitely came from the games in the main NCAA Tournament. Alabama-Maryland and Princeton-Missouri were both well under, but Arkansas and Kansas came right down to the wire.

With the line set at 143.5, the parlay seemed to be in good shape with 1:45 left and the total only at 130. However, the game was close enough that there were still plenty of free throws down the stretch. The Razorbacks’ Ricky Council IV made two free throws with eight seconds left to bring the total to 141 and give Arkansas a three-point lead. Kansas needed a three to tie the game, and if that happened the total would go over and ruin this parlay.

Fortunately for this bettor, Anthony Black fouled Jalen Wilson with three seconds left. Wilson made the first and tried to miss the second, which would have given Kansas a chance for the rebound and a chance to push the game over. Wilson’s attempted miss banked in, pushing the total to 143 but still under the line by just half of a point. In the play highlighted below, Kansas wasn’t able to foul before the final whistle. While that meant the reigning champions were eliminated, it also meant this parlay survived by the narrowest of margins.

Later in the day, the parlay got another close call from the matchup between Penn State and Texas, where the line was set at 139.5. The total was only 54 at halftime but both teams got rolling in the second half in the back-and-forth contest.

With 11 seconds left, Penn State’s Seth Lundy completed a four-point play to make the score 69-66 for a total of 135. After a pair of free throws from the Longhorns’ Marcus Carr, it was a five-point game with five seconds left. As time expired, Andrew Funk threw up the heave below at the buzzer. If the shot had gone in, the under would have missed, but as you can see the final shot was off to the left, and the parlay again narrowly escaped.

After those two extremely close calls, there was just one game left for the Parlay on Sunday. The final leg was the under in the matchup of the two underdogs as No. 16 seed Fairleigh Dickinson faced No. 9 seed Florida Atlantic. The line was set at 150.5, and again the margin of error for the parlay was extremely slim.

Fairleigh Dickinson was down seven at halftime but stormed back in the second half as they tried to pull off their second straight shocker. The Knights actually pulled ahead at 54-51 with 9:19 remaining, but the 7-0 run by the Owls in the highlight pushed FAU ahead to stay and helped them move to the Sweet 16.

Even with a fairly high-scoring second half, the total sat at 146 with just under 30 seconds left. Johnell Davis hit a pair of free throws for FAU to make the game 78-70, within 2.5 points of the line. With 13 seconds left, Knights’ guard Demetre Roberts missed a three-pointer that could have pushed the game over the total, and when the Owls didn’t score on their final possession, the 11-leg parlay was complete.

Going 11-for-11 and picking 11 under is impressive, to be sure, and achieving that allowed this bettor to cash in the 11-leg parlay. The $10 parlay resulted in a haul of over $23K for this bettor.

Over/unders are just one of many picks to consider daily on DraftKings Sportsbook. Stacking your picks together in a parlay can lead to huge payoffs like this one. You can also consider multiple picks from any game to build a Same Game Parlay. As the NIT, CBI and NCAA Tournament continue and the NBA regular season winds down, there are plenty of basketball options to consider. Additionally, there are multiple ways to pick and parlay Major League Baseball, NHL, golf, tennis and the World Baseball Classic to build just the right betting slip to secure your own big victory.

Same Game Parlay (SGP) is available on DraftKings Sportsbook for multiple sports! To place a SGP:

  1. Find a game that has a +SGP icon in the top-left corner.
  2. Toggle “Same Game Parlay” on. Once it’s on, all available bets will appear.
  3. Build your Same Game Parlay. Combine multiple bets from one game. The more bets you combine, the more you can win.
  4. Place your parlay. Add your Same Game Parlay to your bet slip, enter your wager amount, and submit your bet.

Read more about SGP at the DraftKings Sportsbook SGP page!

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