March Madness is finally here, and as usual, Downtown Las Vegas Events Center owner and sports bettor Derek Stevens is at it again. Two years ago, casino owner Stevens came two wins shy of taking home $1 million after he put a $10,000 bet on Michigan State to win the NCAA Championship when the Spartans were
50-to-1 long shots.
Last Sunday, he did not waste any moment when the brackets were announced, and bet $11,000 on each of the 32 opening round games in the NCAA Tournament. That's a total wager of $352,000, and if he wins all of them, he will receive $320,000, which sums up to a total payback of $672,000.
He placed the bets at the South Point live on the set of the Vegas Stats and Information Network show on Sirius XM radio.
Stevens clearly shows his partiality to the underdogs, betting on 19 of them in the first round, with the biggest being that of Texas Southern at plus-25 against North Carolina. The game where he put the most points was on Gonzaga at minus-22 against South Dakota State.
In 2015, he hedged his Michigan state bet, placing $49,000 in the Final Four matchup on Duke to beat Michigan state. Duke trampled the Spartans 81-61 and Stevens walked away with $20,000.
With a total of 32 individual bets this 2017, there shall be no hedging for Stevens.
Sources: http://www.reviewjournal.com/sports/betting/las-vegas-casino-owner-bets-352k-first-round-ncaa-tournament & https://twitter.com/DerekJStevens/status/841102935660486657
