Texans defeat Bengals in the final seconds to win a $5.5 million parlay.
It took until the very end and a winning drive led by rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud of the Houston Texans to record one of the biggest payouts on a parlay bet ever disclosed by a U.S. sportsbook.
After the Hard Rock sportsbook reopened, a bettor in Florida won $5.5 million on a $500,000 four-leg NFL parlay. On Sunday, Texans kicker Matt Ammendola made a 38-yard field goal on the last play to lead Houston to a 30-27 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals. The
four legs of the same-game parlay were:
• Cincinnati Bengals to lose to the Houston Texans
• Texans vs. Bengals to score more than 44.5 points
Devin Singletary, a running back for the Texans, scores a touchdown.
• The only player to surpass 51.5 rushing yards
The Texans, the underdog, upset the Bengals with a string of hits. On the last drive, Singletary ran for 150 yards and a touchdown, and Stroud completed three of four passes to put Houston in field goal position.
“Who else cooked us?” The Hard Rock sportsbook account announced the large parlay payout on X, the former Twitter platform.
For two years, Hard Rock’s Florida online sportsbook was unavailable as a legal dispute reached the U.S. Supreme Court. According to a person familiar with the proceedings, million-dollar wagers have not been unusual since the venue reopened last Tuesday.
A Florida bettor wagered a total of $1,546,000 on a Kent State football team that was only able to win once against Bowling Green on Wednesday.
The wagers:
• $1.12 million for Kent State plus or minus 85
• $426,000 at +325 on the Kent State money line
Bowling Green prevailed 49–19.
Hard Rock Digital senior director of communications Jon Chapper told ESPN that the wagers on Kent State were authentic, but he would not say if the wagers came from the same player who took home the $5.5 million parlay. According to Chapper, the kind of big bets that were made this past week, even on less well-known games, were in line with the kind of wagering that the sportsbook had observed during its roughly one-month-long operation in November 2021.
“Nothing is ‘low profile,’ with such a large and diverse population,” Chapper emailed ESPN. All of our deep betting markets are showing a lot of interest in placing bets. Having said that, we always exercise due diligence, particularly when placing big bets.”
Tech executive Shahrouz Ebadian of Fort Lauderdale is no stranger to large wagers; in the past, he has flown frequently to Las Vegas and, more recently, New Orleans, to place his bets, which have ranged from $10,000 to $100,000 and larger.
