This one will go down as one of the craziest bets in sports betting history.
A bettor walked into the Tuscany Casino in Las Vegas on Thursday and bet $231,676 in cash for Argentina to beat Iran straight up. It was the largest World Cup wager made at the 100 William Hill sportsbooks in the state of Nevada, confirmed company spokesman Michael Grodsky.
Argentina was such a prohibitive favorite that if the team won, he would only win $20,000 (and of course get his original bet money on top of that). Draw or lose, he would lose that money.
So confident that Argentina would win, the bettor dropped another $120,000 on the same bet on Friday to win another $10,000 if Argentina prevailed.
Well, the guy had to sweat. He was four minutes of stoppage time away from losing more than $350,000. As luck would have it, Lionel Messi scored seconds after the extra time was out on the clock and gave the bettor his risky $30,000 win.
