Over the past two weeks in the NBA playoffs, a BetMGM customer has used an interesting strategy to rack up massive wins.

As in, nearly $1 million in profit at one point, before the Spurs’ Sunday night loss finally slowed down the bettor. 

And the net total is still more than $900,000.

More on the ladder-wager bettor, two notable hits from UFC 328 — including a six-figure payday on ostensibly a free bet — and some interesting MLB winners, as we recap the week that was in sports betting.

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Climbing the Ladder

Betting the point spread is quite a common move. Not quite as common, but certainly not unusual, is betting alternate point spreads.

Less common: Betting several alternate point spreads on one game, for huge money.

Ever since Timberwolves-Nuggets Game 5, though, a BetMGM customer has employed that strategy to incredible success. In that game, the bettor placed $375,000 in straight bets across seven different point spreads.

Those bets went 6-1, and the customer bagged $196,500 in profit.

Since then, the bettor has fired in similar fashion on a handful of NBA playoff games. That included $250,000 in Sunday wagers on Knicks-76ers Game 4:

• $100,000 Knicks +5.5 (-225)
• $75,000 Knicks +4.5 (-190)
• $35,000 Knicks +3.5 (-170)
• $20,000 Knicks +2.5 (-150)
• $10,000 Knicks +1.5 (-135)
• $10,000 Knicks -1.5 (-105)

New York then absolutely plastered Philadelphia 144-114 to complete a 4-0 sweep in the series. Obviously, all six bets were winners, for a net profit of $134,770 (total payout $384,770).

That took the bettor’s winnings over the past two weeks to a whopping $996,770, knocking on the door of a million bucks.

Finally, in Sunday night’s Spurs-Timberwolves Game 4, the winning run ended. The customer had $75,000 across five wagers on San Antonio, and went oh-fer as Minnesota won 114-109.

Still, even after that $75,000 fallout, the bettor is up more than $920,000. And they will probably be back for more, perhaps as soon as Monday night.

Fight Night

It’s a great feeling to win a bet with your own hard-earned money. But it’s pretty nice to win it with someone else’s money, too.

A Hard Rock Bet customer did that on Saturday’s UFC 328 card. The bettor utilized a $250 bonus bet, ostensibly a free ride, on a six-leg parlay.

Now, to be clear, earning such bonus bets means you’ve probably lost a fair amount of money along the way. Sportsbooks aren’t just handing those out like candy on Halloween.

Still, a long-shot parlay isn’t a bad way to utilize such a free play. In this case, the odds were a hefty +40742, or just beyond 407/1.

And it wasn’t on just any six fights from the 13-bout card. It was on six consecutive fights. Plus, the last leg was a big underdog, King Green +1200 to win by submission vs. Jeremy Stephens.

But King did just that, finishing off Stephens with 40 seconds left in the first round. The $250 free ride became $101,604.17 in real money.

Also on the UFC 328 card, a FanDuel Sportsbook customer perfectly predicted the five-bout main card. The bettor put a modest $25 on a parlay across all five contests.

All five fighters won, and at odds of +6286 (about 63/1), the bettor’s modest wager turned into $1,596.53.

It’s not a six-figure payout, but neither is it a bad evening’s work. I’d take that ROI all day, every day.

MLB Money

Ahead of Thursday’s afternoon slate of MLB games, a Fanatics customer put $750 on a five-leg parlay involving three matchups. The bettor mixed in a moneyline, a couple runlines and a couple totals.

All five legs got there relatively easily. The biggest sweat was on the two Twins-Nationals legs.

Washington won 7-5, with the game’s final two runs coming in the bottom of the seventh inning. That clinched the legs of Nationals -1.5 and Over 10 runs.

The odds were +3300, which would’ve netted a fine profit of almost $25,000. But the bettor also utilized a 33% profit boost, hiking the odds to +4340.

That bumped the profit to $32,548, for a total payout of $33,298.

A Rory Story

Some bettors, particularly sharp ones, find value in taking the No on Yes/No prop bets. But most sportsbooks don’t offer Yes/No on props, at least not with any regularity. Perhaps on the Super Bowl and such.

So generally, you only have one option, betting on something to happen. You don’t get the option of betting on something not to happen.

Prediction markets, however, give traders that option. And a ProphetX customer made the most of it in the PGA Tour’s Truist Championship.

In the Yes/No on Rory McIlroy winning the tournament, No was -650. That meant it would take a $650 play to win $100.

To make it far more worthwhile, the trader decided to bump it up to $100,000. And after McIlroy stumbled to a 4-over 75 in the third round, the deal was pretty much sealed.

McIlroy tied for 19th, 10 shots behind surprise winner Kristoffer Reitan. So the ProphetX trader banked $15,384 profit (total payout $115,384).

Missed It By That Much

As is often noted in these articles: Parlays are a bookmaker’s best friend. Nothing pleases a sportsbook risk room more than when the public betting masses play five- or 10- or 15-leg parlays.

The house advantage goes way up with each leg added. No matter how well you do, all it takes is one leg to blow the whole thing up.

A FanDuel Sportsbook customer learned that in Wednesday’s Game 2 of the 76ers-Knicks series. But the bettor at least did the smart thing by utilizing a $500 bonus bet — rather than the patron’s own money — on an 11-leg same-game parlay.

Each leg was on the Over/Under for a player’s total points.

With 22 seconds remaining, 10 legs were in, and Miles McBride stepped to the free-throw line with a chance to bring that 11th leg home. McBride had three points; two more would reach his total of five points or more.

He hit the first free throw, then missed the second. Four points. Parlay dies. One charity-stripe miss away from a $12,256 payday.

That’s parlays in a nutshell.