2025 Big Bets Report: Bettor Loses $450k on Overturned Jared Goff Touchdown

For a fleeting moment on Sunday night, a DraftKings Sportsbook customer was nearly half a million dollars richer. A long-shot wager came through on the first touchdown scorer of the Detroit Lions vs. Kansas City Chiefs showdown.

But as they like to say in the NFL: After further review …

And poof. It was gone. A huge win became a huge loss.

More on that bet, along with major wagers and profitable parlays in NFL betting this past weekend.

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Trick Play

Before the Lions-Chiefs kickoff, DraftKings took a $5,000 bet on Detroit QB Jared Goff scoring the game’s first touchdown. The odds: a hefty +9000 (90/1).

The Lions received the opening kick, and Goff methodically drove them down the field. On fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line, Detroit lined up to go for it.

Goff then backed away from center and went in motion to the left side. Lions running back David Montgomery took the direct shotgun snap and threw to Goff, who juggled the ball, but ultimately gathered it in to score.

At that point, wherever that bettor was, pandemonium surely erupted, as that $5,000 became a whopping $450,000.

But then the referees gathered to discuss the play and determined that Goff never got set before the snap. Then a flag was thrown for illegal motion, a 5-yard penalty was assessed, and Detroit kicked a field goal to go up 3-0.

Instead of Goff being the first TD scorer, and that bettor bagging a big check, Chiefs wideout Xavier Worthy scored on the ensuing possession to snare first touchdown honors.

I Like Big Bets and I Cannot Lie

The largest reported bet of the weekend landed at Caesars Sports, and it was in the first game on the NFL Week 6 oddsboard: the Philadelphia Eagles vs. the New York Giants.

The bettor, firing large in Tennessee, put $339,000 on Giants +7.5 (-113), just hoping rookie QB Jaxson Dart & Co. could keep the game close against the defending Super Bowl champs.

Dart did much more than that. 

He scored the game’s first touchdown and helped New York jump out to a 13-3 lead at home.

But Jalen Hurts and the Eagles rebounded to take a 17-13 halftime lead. So it looked as if that big bettor was gonna get a big sweat.

Not so. The Giants shut out the Eagles in the second half, while rookie running back Cam Skattebo scored three touchdowns to lift New York to a 34-17 upset.

And the bettor banked a hefty $300,000 profit, for a total payout of $639,000.

Parlay Partay

Ahead of Sunday’s early kickoffs, a FanDuel Sportsbook customer strung together this $20 four-leg player-prop parlay:

• Chargers wideout Ladd McConkey anytime touchdown +200
• Panthers wideout Tetairoa McMillan to score two or more TDS +1000
• Colts wideout Josh Downs anytime touchdown +290
• Jaguars running back Travis Etienne 25 or more receiving yards +220

Add that all up, and you’ve got a bet at odds of +41084, or in easier-to-digest terms, almost 411/1.

Interestingly, through five weeks, McMillan had no touchdowns, never mind two in one game. And Downs had yet to find the end zone either.

But McMillan scored in the second and fourth quarters of Carolina’s 30-27 win over the Dallas Cowboys. And Downs hit paydirt early in the fourth quarter of Indianapolis’ 31-27 victory over the Arizona Cardinals.

McConkey and Etienne did their parts, as well. So that 20 bucks became $8,236. That’s the kind of ROI I can get behind.

And in the "Close But No Cigar" category, a Fanatics Sportsbook customer put $50 on a 10-leg player-prop parlay. The first nine legs were in by the time the Lions and Chiefs kicked off.

All that stood between that bettor and $98,095.60 — nearly a hundred grand — was a touchdown Sunday night from Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs.

But Gibbs couldn’t find the end zone. It’s a good reminder of the perils of parlays. As the cliché goes: Parlays are a bookmaker’s best friend.

Fair Game

More than a year ago, Fanatics Sportsbook introduced its groundbreaking Fair Play initiative. In football player props, if a player was injured in the first quarter and did not return, Fanatics refunded any straight bets on that player.

In parlays, any leg involving that player was voided. So the parlay remained alive with the other picks.

This season, Fanatics extended that policy to the second quarter, as well. So on Sunday, when Tampa Bay Buccaneers star rookie wideout Emeka Egbuka (hamstring) was ruled out for the second half, after playing in the first half, the policy swung into motion.

In a big way.

Egbuka’s strong debut season has attracted plenty of attention from bettors. Sunday’s game against the 49ers was no exception. Between refunds on Egbuka straight bets and honoring parlays that won once Egbuka legs were voided, Fanatics reported paying out $1.5 million on Sunday.

One bettor was in for $1,000 on a six-leg parlay that had five legs hit but didn’t connect on Egbuka anytime touchdown. That leg was voided, and the bettor snagged $27,894 in profit.

Countless other parlays ended up paying out, as well.

Here’s Hoping You Had It

It’s not all about making big bets or cashing out huge on 10-leg parlays — which, just to be clear, is rare. Sometimes it’s about putting 10 bucks on a single straight bet, backing a long shot or semi-long shot, and getting brilliant ROI.

For example, in the Sunday morning Broncos-Jets game played in London, Fanatics had a prop bet of Anytime Fake Punt, at odds of +61037, or just beyond 610/1.

Late in the second quarter, New York lined up in punt formation on fourth-and-1 from its own 37-yard line. But the ball was snapped to upback Breece Hall, who gained the yard to get the first down.

If you’d just put a tenner on that prop, then you’d have profited more than $6,100.

Or how about Broncos tight end Nate Adkins to score the first touchdown of that game? Adkins was +5500 to do so but hit paydirt on the last play of the first quarter.

Ten bucks on that became $550 profit.

New England Patriots wideout DeMario Douglas was +2700 to score the first TD of Sunday’s game against the New Orleans Saints. But score it he did, so a $10 wager there would’ve cashed for $270.

I’d take that all day, every day.

I Like Big Bets, Part II

Along with the massive Giants bet noted above, quite a few major wagers landed on NFL Week 6 odds. And like the bet above, Caesars Sports took several of those plays, including:

• $275,000 Raiders -3.5 vs. Titans. Las Vegas won and covered, 20-10, and the bettor profited $250,000 (total payout $525,000).
• $250,000 Chiefs -2.5 vs. Lions, parlayed to Under 51.5, for odds of +264. Kansas City won 30-17 for a total of 47 points. So the bettor banked $661,157.03 (total payout $911,157.03).
• $110,000 Chiefs -2.5. That’s another winner, for $100,000 (total payout $210,000).
• $110,000 Falcons +4 vs. Bills. That will be settled in Monday night’s game.

But it’s not all puppies and rainbows for these high-rolling customers. Sportsbooks regularly pad their bottom line with major wagers gone awry.

A DraftKings customer put $125,000 on Packers -14 vs. the Bengals. Green Bay won 27-18, and Cincinnati covered the number, leaving the bettor six figures shorter in the bank account.

Also at DraftKings, a bettor put $80,000 on Eagles -7 vs. Giants. That’s now a high-five-figure donation to the house.

So bear in mind that these high-rollers have the means to withstand a big loss. All of us regular everyday Joes and Janes need to keep it reasonable. Never bet more than you can afford to lose.

Patrick Everson is a sports betting analyst for FOX Sports and senior reporter for VegasInsider.com. He is a distinguished journalist in the national sports betting space. He’s based in Las Vegas, where he enjoys golfing in 110-degree heat. Follow him on Twitter: @PatrickE_Vegas.

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