NFL
Tom Brady Is About to Make $45,000 for a Very Smart Bettor
John Moriello started covering sports in 1982, began digital publishing in 1995, and joined Sportscasting in 2020. A graduate of St. John Fisher University, he finds inspiration in the underdogs and the fascinating stories sports can tell (both the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat). John expertly covers all aspects of NASCAR. Beginning with his 2014 coverage at Fox Sports of the aftermath of the dirt-race tragedy in which Kevin Ward Jr. died after being struck by a car driven by NASCAR Hall of Famer Tony Stewart, John has excelled as a journalist who specializes in the motorsports world. He previously spent more than three decades covering high school sports and worked as a beat writer covering Big East football and basketball, but NASCAR is now where the true expertise falls. John is a member of the New York State Basketball Hall of Fame (2013), the President of the New York State Sportswriters Association, and a two-time Best of Gannett winner for print and online collaborations whose work has appeared on FoxSports.com and MaxPreps.com.
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The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have had quite the busy week, placing the franchise tag on Shaq Barrett, re-signing Jason Pierre-Paul, and apparently landing Tom Brady.
Tampa fans are eagerly awaiting the moment that the most accomplished quarterback in NFL history puts pen to paper to sign his contract and officially joins the team, but there’s someone with more at stake than the average football fan awaiting that formality to be squared away.
That’s because one savvy bettor is set to make $45,000 as soon as Brady becomes a Buc and steps on the field in Week 1.
One score leads to another for a bettor in Atlantic City
ActionNework.com tells the story of a professional bettor who goes by the name of Mark and recently scored $285,500 by projecting Lamar Jackson to be the National Football League MVP.
He did it by starting with a $500 wager on Jackson at 66-1 odds during a May visit to an Atlantic City casino. He went to another casino, where he put down $1,500 at 80-1 odds. By the time his highly speculative spree was over, the man had invested $3,200 and stood to make $285,500.
As the story notes, that sort of bet probably couldn’t have been made legally as recently as the 2016 NFL season because sportsbooks generally have an aversion to handling betting propositions that aren’t decided by events on a playing field. MVP awards are decided by voting that has the potential to be manipulated, but some casinos started making exceptions in 2017.
Bettor does his homework on Tom Brady and the Buccaneers
With money literally in the bank after scoring a touchdown with his Lamar Jackson hunch, Mark decided to leave some cash at the betting window in Atlantic City before flying home to Florida the day after the Super Bowl.
Seeing that the sportsbook at the Resorts Casino was taking action on where Tom Brady would play next fall, he ruled out betting on the New England Patriots because of the short odds.
Deciding that the Los Angeles Chargers weren’t quite ready to contend and that the Las Vegas Raiders would stick with Derek Carr, he got down bets on the Buccaneers at 50-1 and then 40-1 odds. His $1,500 investment is now tantalizingly close to bringing him $45,000
Mark and his betting partner subsequently made big bets on the Buccaneers to win the NFC South and reach the Super Bowl.
There are two obstacles left to collecting on the Tom Brady bet
Tuesday’s big story during a busy NFL week was that Tom Brady was leaving the New England Patriots, where he won six Super Bowls with Bill Belichick. Word circulated shortly afterward that he had picked the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The bettor with $45,000 on the line must still clear two hurdles. First, Brady will have to pass a physical and sign his contract with the Bucs. Because of how the betting slip is written, that would seem to be the easy part.
The ticket says the betting proposition is for Brady’s team for Week 1 of the 2020 regular season, so the gambler will be eager for the country to leave the coronavirus pandemic behind and then the Buccaneers to put Brady on the field in the opener.
