Someone Has $3.5 Million Riding on Portugal — The Wildest World Cup Bets We’ve Seen So Far
One high-roller has three separate parlay tickets totaling nearly $3.5 million riding on Portugal winning the 2026 World Cup — and the long-shot bets don’t stop there.
Somewhere out there, one very calm, very wealthy bettor is sitting on three separate parlay tickets that could collectively net them nearly $3.5 million — all of it riding on Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal lifting the World Cup trophy this summer. If that does not make your palms sweat, nothing will.
According to FOX Sports reporter Patrick Everson, who broke the story June 10, this high-roller has been quietly building these tickets since March. Ticket one is a multi-leg parlay sitting at +4,975 odds — a winner pays out $1.015 million total, with $995,000 in profit. Ticket two cranks the drama up considerably: another multi-leg parlay at +12,184 odds, worth $1.228 million if Portugal closes it out. Then there is ticket three — a $25,000 four-leg monster at +5,121 odds that connects Knicks-Spurs NBA Finals Game 1, Alexander Zverev winning the French Open, and Portugal winning the World Cup, with a profit of $1.28 million baked in. Add it all up and the combined potential payout lands just shy of $3.5 million. Portugal is currently sitting at +900 to win it all at Caesars — down from +1,000 just 10 days ago, partly because of bettors piling on exactly this kind of ticket.
Dreamers and Long Shots: Haiti Bettors Swinging for Millions
Not everyone needs a structured multi-leg parlay to make a sportsbook sweat. Some bettors just find the longest odds on the board and fire. Two bettors did exactly that with Haiti, dropping serious cash at +250,000 — that is 2,500-to-1 — on a team that has not been to a World Cup since 1974.
- $1,250 at +250,000 on Haiti at DraftKings → $3.125 million potential payout
- $1,000 at +250,000 on Haiti at betmgm/”>BetMGM → $2.5 million potential payout
Haiti is tied for the longest odds in the entire field alongside Curacao and Jordan, and they drew about as brutal a Group C as you can imagine: Brazil, Morocco, and Scotland. Les Grenadiers are making their first World Cup appearance in over 50 years and are massive underdogs in every sense of the word. Yet those two bets are enough to make Haiti BetMGM’s single biggest World Cup liability. Two bettors, a combined $2,250 in wagers, and a combined $5.625 million sitting on the shoulders of a team that most analysts barely mention in previews. The nerve required to make that bet is genuinely staggering.
South Korea, Iraq, and the Art of the Long-Shot Lottery Ticket
The Haiti bets are the headline-grabbers, but they are not the only long-shot tickets drawing attention heading into the tournament. On June 10, Ben Fawkes of Yahoo Sports flagged a DraftKings bet that deserves its own moment: $4,114 placed at +40,000 odds on South Korea to win the World Cup, good for a potential $1.645 million payday. South Korea is grouped with co-host Mexico, Czechia, and South Africa — a tough draw, but not impossible. For context, South Korea has qualified for 11 consecutive World Cups, finished fourth on home soil in 2002, and reached the Round of 16 as recently as 2022. This bettor is not completely delusional; they just need a miracle. Over at BetMGM, someone dropped $1,000 on Iraq at +100,000 odds — a cool million if it somehow happens. The World Cup has always inspired this kind of desperate optimism, and the 2026 edition, expanded to 48 teams, has handed out more of these long-shot dreams than any tournament before it.
The Public Money, the Market, and a $60 Billion Global Spectacle
While the long-shot bettors chase dreams, the market is being shaped by the favorites — and in the United States, the public is making its feelings very clear. Spain leads the board at +460, commanding 17.2 percent of BetMGM bets and a dominant 25.4 percent of handle. France is close behind at +500, pulling 16.2 percent of bets and 22 percent of handle. England sits in the mix at +700 to +826, while defending champions Argentina are hovering around +950 to +1,049. But it is the USA and Portugal driving the most sportsbook heartburn right now. Portugal’s line has shortened from +1,000 to +750 to +900 in the last 10 days thanks to heavy public action — including, presumably, the $3.5 million parlay guy. And the USA? At Caesars, they are the single biggest liability in the book. Mark Bickerdike, Caesars’ head of soccer trading, put it plainly: “In terms of the response that we’ve seen so far, the USA is our biggest liability.” At BetMGM, the Americans are the most-bet team to win their group and the most-bet team to qualify for the knockout round. Someone even dropped $1,500 on the USA at +6,600 at BetMGM — a ticket worth $99,000 if the red, white, and blue improbably run the table. The global scale of all this is almost incomprehensible: H2/EKG projects $2.8 billion bet on the World Cup in the United States alone, with $60 billion wagered worldwide.
July 19 in New York: The Night That Changes Everything
On July 19, the World Cup final takes place in New York — and by then, some of the biggest individual sports bets ever placed in the United States will either be cashed out or crumpled up. A $3.5 million Portugal parlay. A combined $5.625 million in Haiti long shots. A $1.645 million South Korea dream ticket. The sheer audacity of these wagers is part of what makes the 2026 World Cup feel different. The legal sports betting market in this country has matured enough that bettors are swinging for eight-figure dreams on the grandest stage in sports. Whatever happens between now and that final whistle, the stakes are real — and the electricity is only going to build from here.