Nevada-based Circa Sports had the largest payout ever for a legal sports betting contest this NFL season, with a survivor pool of 18,178 entries — with each entry costing $1,000 — and a record $18.718 million prize pool.
In the contest, contestants must select a single NFL team each week to simply win its game outright and aren’t allowed to use the same team twice in a season. Circa’s contest also has an extra week around Thanksgiving and Christmas, making the contest 20 weeks in total.
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Heading into Week 18, there were only six entries remaining — and one of them had selected Joe Burrow’s Cincinnati Bengals against Shedeur Sanders’ Cleveland Browns. With total prize pool of over $18.7 million, that means that each of the six remaining entries had an implied value of a little over $3 million.
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Two of the other entries had the Minnesota Vikings (won vs. Packers), one had the Atlanta Falcons (won vs. Saints), one had the Jacksonville Jaguars (won vs. Titans) and one had the New England Patriots (vs. Dolphins).
Despite dominating the first half, the Bengals were down 14-12 at halftime thanks to not one, but two Browns defensive touchdowns — including a 97-yard interception return by Devin Bush on a tipped Burrow pass.
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After a late go-ahead 4-yard touchdown pass from Burrow to Ja’Marr Chase with 1:29 remaining in the game, Sanders led the Browns down to the Bengals’ 31-yard line with three seconds left to set up a 49-yard field goal attempt.
Cleveland kicker Andre Szmyt nailed the kick to give the Browns a shocking 20-18 win and cost one entry over $3.1 million.
Hopefully, that bettor hedged some of his exposure on Cleveland before the game, but nonetheless a tough way to finish off a great season.
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