Barstool Sports founder and owner Dave Portnoy wagered $600,000 on the University of Connecticut to win the 2024 Men’s Basketball NCAA Tournament. He’s now won that bet, and is $2.76 million richer for it.
Yesterday, we reported on the Huskies dominant performance in their tournament win. Despite their heavy favorite status, Portnoy still got +360 at DraftKings on his $600K pre-tournament bet on them to win it all.
Barstool Sports is also DraftKings official sports betting media partner. Not that would have had anything to do with the odds Portnoy got on his big wager.
“The greatest bet of my life,” Portnoy wrote in a social media post.
“Thank you, Uconn. Destroyed everybody and everything in their path. They’d win the tournament 100 out of 100 times. The biggest win of my life by a mile.”
March Madness’ Biggest Bets
However, Portnoy’s successful bet was not the biggest wager, or biggest potential payout, of the tournament.
An unknown player would have won $2.8 million with a $200,000 wager on the Tennessee Volunteers at 14/1, or +1400.
The biggest bets of the tournament overall were from — who else — Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale.
The Texan furniture magnate loves large bets on his home state’s teams in big events. This year, he placed not one, but two $1 million bets on the Houston Cougars to win the NCAA Tournament. Both bets were at Caesars Sportsbook, and both had odds of +750.
Both wagers went bust when Houston lost to Duke University in a close 54-51 game in the round of 16.
After the Tennessee Volunteers crashed out to finalists Purdue in the Elite 8 stage, Portnoy’s big wager on UConn was comfortably the biggest left in the game (as reported by regulated U.S. sportsbooks, at least.)
Portnoy previously said that the highly fancied Huskies were bound to make him sweat during the tournament. But by the final game against Purdue, any doubts about UConn were well away from most bettors’ minds. Including Portnoy.
“I haven’t even considered that I could lose this bet. I know it’s crazy, that’s how confident I am,” he said on social media, shortly after the final match started.
Popular Tournament
In the end, UConn won a comfortable 75-60 victory over the Boilermakers, bagging Portnoy $2.7 million in the process.
Many other Americans would have also made some change on the game as well, with sportsbooks lamenting the domination of the heavy favorite.
Around $2.7 billion was wagered on the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball tournament this year. DraftKings, which paid out on Portnoy’s big bet, said the final was the most wagered-on college basketball game in history.
David is an online casino expert who specializes in online slots and boasts over 10 years experience writing about iGaming. He has written for a wide range of notable publications, including eSports Insider and WordPlay Magazine.
David graduated Derby University with a BA Degree in English Literature and Creative Writing.
