Although I've been betting sports futures my whole adult life, two of my best bets came last NCAA basketball season. I had bet $400 to win $800,000 on FAU last December after noticing Caesar's hadn't updated their odds on FAU even though they had started 9-0 and my computer rankings had them as a top 25 team. I ended up having the largest possible win in the country and ESPN wrote about it.
SDSU i bet right before the tournament started with my model saying they should be +3000 instead of +10000. With a couple of #1 teams losing, FAU faced SDSU in the final 4 with SDSU killing my giant dreams with a last second winning shot.
But the big thing that most bettors miss about sports futures is the hedging opportunities. I was able to bet money lines along the way against my teams, lock in a $40,000 winning season, and still have a chance to win $200,000+ on the final game if SDSU had pulled it out.
• The Owls were listed as 2,500-1 long shots to win the championship in December at Caesars Sportsbook. Caesars reported taking three $100 bets on FAU at 2,500-1 from a bettor in Illinois and another $100 bet on the Owls after moving them to 500-1. The bets were placed in December. and combined would pay a net $800,000 if FAU shocks the world.
