Some wild 2021 sports-betting moments from ESPN Chalk...

You can tell the year is winding down and the news cycles are getting slow.

So David Purdum decided to come up with 21 wild bets from 2021 and his reporting on ESPN Chalk:

1. (Dec. 11) A 25-team parlay which out-won any other such parlay in the history of Caesar's Sportsbook by a factor of about EIGHTY.  Most of the just-over 100 25-teamers to hit are massive favorites who cash, so the largest such payout was something of the order of $3,400 on a $25 bet.  This one cashed for almost a quarter-million dollars.
2. (Ryder Cup)  One fan bet $8 that he could name the entire result (including halved matches) of the singles play on Sunday.  He did just that, nailing all 12 results for almost a million dollars.
3. (Week 9 of the NFL Season)  Try nailing both exact scores of the Sunday and Monday night games to the point.  A FanDuel bettor bet $1 he could, and walked out over $50,000 richer when he was right!
4. (Sept. 27)  Someone with far too much time on his hands decided on a 10-cent 16-leg soccer parlay for the day's games.  $67,500 won later...
5. (Europe -- Late June)  A European bettor nailed a six-way parlay with two Euro matches and four golf results (including all three major world tour winners -- PGA, LPGA, European).  Something of the order of $15.50 converted went off for over $1.36 million after the longest playoff in PGA Tour history finished and his golfer (Harris English) won it!
6. (Nov. 24) Someone who needs to just send me his or her money.  Some IDIOT has laid over $1,000 that Tiger Woods will win next year's Masters.
7. (May 20)  To tell you how long this year has been for me:  I thought Phil Mickelson won LAST YEAR'S PGA Championship.  Someone decided to be what I would've said was a similar idiot to #6 and laid a grand on Mickelson to win the 2021 PGA.  That netted $300,000.
8. (October)  The reasonable half of this $1,000 pairing was that the Dodgers would win Game 4 of their Divisional Series with the Giants.  The UNreasonable half was, then, Northern Illinois winning the Mid-American Conference football championship game.  First week of December, that bettor was handed a fat check for $34,725.
9. (Dec. 6)  Someone with way too much MONEY on his hands laid a bet, after seeing the insane weather conditions (the windy MNF game) that neither team in the MNF game between the Patriots and Bills would score 40 points).  At 1-100 odds, He bet over $250,000 to win about $2,500.  WHY??  
10. (March Madness Round 1)  Someone was able to successfully navigate all the upsets -- and I do mean ALL OF THEM.  $10 11-team outright-upset parlay --> $33,000.
11. (mid-February)  It's one thing to make a stupid bet and forget that all losing bets have value of zero.  It's another to bet $10,000 that the 9-17 Wizards will win the championship.  If you are that interested in parting with your money, please just send it to me at...   
12. (NFL Playoffs)  Nine bettors cashed a bookie's error for $10,500 when they spotted an error that basically looks like the promotional codes for the various online sportsbooks -- if each quarterback threw for one yard...
13. (Barkley being an idiot)  The famous bet where Charles Barkley actually felt he could beat 17 of the 87 celebrities in the American Century Celebrity Golf Championship.  He fell six short and lost $100,000 on that bet.
14. (June 2)  Single bet, but a huge one:  Dallas ML Clippers at +250 for $400,000.  That won a million.
15. (March 19)  A bettor, at 30-1, bet that Shohei Ohtani would win the AL MVP.  For $30,000, he won $900,000 as sportsbooks took an abject seven-figure BATH on the victory.
16. (Another Week 9 situation) The same week that one person nailed both prime-time scores, another person hit that both the Broncos and Jaguars would win as double-digit underdogs.  The $16,000 money line total hit for... only $86,400???  I'd think, at those numbers, that'd hit for 3 or so times that.  
17. (WNBA All-Star Game)  One of the reasons that betting syndicates are usually quickly banned is that they try to spot manipulation opportunities.  They saw a bookie error in the total for the WNBA All-Star Game when Vegas had it at 248.5 -- and eventually milked it down to 191.  Read books like The Smart Money if you want to see what usually happens after that situation.
18. (Week 8)  A Jersey small business owner laid a grand that Mike White of the lowly Jets would have the most passing yards in that week.  $150,000 later, he probably has some security in his small business.
19. (Week 7)  In an idea which seems to indicate that someone got the script, someone was able to make a 8-way parlay on the Colts-49ers game (and only the Colts-49ers game) to cash for almost $100,000.  He got the winner, the over, both quarterbacks going under on their yardage totals, two running backs going over their yardage totals, and two of the players to score touchdowns.
20. (Nov. 9)  In another "WHY??", a bettor bet on Gonzaga to win their season opener, and bet $50,000 on it.  Their opponent, however, was Dixie State, and the win was just over $700.
21. (Oct. 8)  The largest college football bet of the season was an almost $570,000 money-line parly bet on three powerhouse favorites -- at least this one would've won $105,656.  It lost when Alabama lost to Texas A&M -- Cincinnati and Ohio State hit.