7 Insanely Clever Sports Bets You Won't Believe People Made

I'm a fairly straightforward bettor. I tend to focus on money line bets, over / under bets, bets with or against the spread, and occasionally a teaser.

But if you want to get into the clever and wild bets like those listed below you have to have a broader view of possible sports bets than I have.

Read about 7 insanely clever sports bets you won't believe people made below.

1 – 50 Cent on Mayweather

After reading some of the things that came out of his recent trial, it's hard to tell what you can and can't believe when it comes to stories about 50 Cent, the rapper and actor.

The popular story was he had placed a bet of 1.6 million dollars on Floyd Mayweather Jr. in his boxing match with Manny Pacquiao.

Of course Mayweather won the fight so if 50 Cent did place the bet he was a big winner. But I remember hearing rumors of doubt surrounding the wager. Some whispers went as far to say he laid off most of the action by placing a wager on the other side of a million or more.

I have no inside information about any of these rumors, but after his claims of being broke in court it makes some of them sound more realistic. He claimed he used a gold chain and then had a jeweler use the gold to make a different chain and that he didn't own most of the cars he had acted like he owned. He basically claimed most of his apparent wealth was an illusion, so if he was telling the truth it would lead me to believe that a straight 1.6 million bet was a bit much.

Of course he could be lying in court as he's trying to keep from paying someone a bunch of money for a settlement. Maybe one day the truth will come out.

2 – How Many Players, or Will Any Players Be Arrested the Week Before the Super Bowl

I haven't seen this one for a few years but a sports book made waves by offering a bet on if any players would be arrested the week before the Super Bowl or how many would be arrested.

With all of the off filed problems the NFL faces you wouldn't think the powers that be would be very happy about bets like this. Of course the NFL doesn't have much control over what bets are offered by sports books.

Once the online sports books market expanded at a rapid pace the NFL doesn't have any control. Do you think sports books located outside the US care what the NFL wants?

Sports books will offer any wagers they determine they can make money on.

And if you think professional football players don't party the week before the Super Bowl you need to read some of the off field issues some of these players have. From drugs to abuse and violence to murder trials, the NFL is full of people who commit criminal acts, just like the general population has plenty of bad apples.

I would consider placing a small bet on at least one player being arrested the week before the Super Bowl most years.

3 – Total Yardage of All Field Goals in the Super Bowl

This is one of the hundreds of prop bets available for every Super Bowl. A recent sports book line on the over / under for total yards of all field goals made in the Super Bowl stood at 115 ½.

If the average length of a field goal was 30 yards you'd need three or less for the under or four or more for the over.

Super Bowl teams tend to have high scoring kickers so the indication is always to expect the kicker to be involved in the game heavily.

Every year punters take both sides of this bet and the ones that choose correctly look clever.

The truth is this bet is just like every other wager offered by the sports books. It's based on getting the same amount of money wagered on both sides instead of what the books think will actually happen.

Using the logic I put forth above about three or four field goals, you can probably find an over / under on 3 ½ field goals wager also.

4 – A Safety as the First Score of the Super Bowl

The odds are usually between 50 to 1 and 75 to 1 on a wager stating the first score in the Super Bowl will be a safety.

Safeties are rare scoring plays, but it just so happens that the first score in Super Bowl XLVI was a safety.

At least one person posted proof of holding a winning ticket from the MGM in Las Vegas at 50 to 1. The $1,000 wager paid out $50,000. Not bad for a day at the football game.

Though it's rare, a safety has actually been the first points scored in the big game twice now, so 50 to 1 or better isn't a bad price.

5 – Frankie Dettori

Frankie Dettori is a jockey who had a super fan who thought he could do no wrong. The fan, Darren Yates, placed a bet for just under 70 British Pounds that Dettori would win all 7 races he was riding in on the same day.

Dettori ended up winning all seven races and Yates won over a half million Pounds.

For those in the United States, the original wager was around $100 and the winnings were over $850,000.

The common story is that Yates had been betting on horses Dettori was jockeying for quite some time and had lost a great deal of money doing so. Supposedly his wife had put her foot down and forbid him from placing any more bets on the jockey.

6 – Erick Lindgren

Erick Lindgren is known as a professional poker player, but one of the most cunning bets he was able to arrange was for over $300,000 on a golf game.

He claimed he could play 4 rounds of golf in the same day while meeting the following qualification.

The original wager was with Gavin Smith but once the news spread other players wanted a piece of the action. The total amount of the bet was almost $350,000 and after a long day Lindgren won the bets.

He suffered from dehydration, losing 10 pounds over the course of the day, but he was back to the poker tables just a couple days later.

7 – Mick Gibbs 50 Cents Wager That Paid Out Over $750,000

In the early 2000's a laborer by the name of Mick Gibbs placed an accumulator wager for around 50 cents.

An accumulator wager is a bet on a group of sporting events over time. The punter has to get every wager correct in order to cash in. It's something like a parlay bet but instead of all the games or matches taking place on one day they can be spread over time. As a matter of fact, some sports books call accumulator bets and parlay wagers the same thing.

Mr. Gibbs placed his bet on 15 football matches. These were English football, or what's called soccer in the United States.

The odds against his success were over 1.6 million to 1.

He won all 15 matches and walked away with a win over $750,000.

Seems to me I should consider making some fifty cent bets on big parlays too. You could afford to make a bunch of them if you could hit just once. Of course I'm sure thousands of players have the same thought every year and you don't hear about many of them hitting big wins like this.

Conclusion

Just about anything can happen when it comes to sports betting and you can find someone to take bets on almost anything. The seven stories and bets above show that nothing seems to be out of the question.

In closing, most of the stories listed above are entertaining, but the big wins are mostly at terrible odds. It's extremely difficult to pick 7 or 15 straight races or matches. Most punters will simply be throwing their money away on these types of bets. Just because I write about them and find them entertaining doesn't mean I support making them.

If you're able to beat the sports books on simpler wagers and enjoy taking a flyer every now and then on a long shot then feel free to do so. Just don't make the mistake of planning your retirement around hitting one of them. You might as well buy some lottery tickets.