Professional gambler wins $2.5 million on Royals’ World Series title
Winning the World Series was the realization of a lifelong dream for members of the Kansas City Royals.
For professional gambler Dave Oancea – he’s known as Vegas Dave online – the Royals’ first title since 1985 meant he made trips to a few Las Vegas casinos Monday and at the end of his road drove home with $2,457,200. We hope he brought a few bags to hold all that cash.
In all Oancea made 26 individual future bets on the Royals this season totaling $100,000, starting with a $25,000 wager when the odds were 30 to 1 back in April.
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“It was week one and they were 7-0, and everybody was on Detroit, but I knew Detroit had no bullpen,” he said. “And bullpen and pitching wins in baseball, so I knew Detroit would fall apart. And the odds were so big at (30-1) that if I didn’t make the playoffs, I could hedge and make money. …
“They made it Game 7 last year and they actually had upgrades this year, so I figured why couldn’t they do it again?”
He had the opportunity to hedge his bet before the World Series to guarantee himself $750,000 by putting some money on the Mets, but he believed in the Royals at a time when many thought their playoff run in 2014 was a fluke. Why would that change when they were so close to winning the whole thing?
Less than a week later, Kansas City rallied to win Game 5 in New York to clinch the championship and Vegas Dave could now go by a new moniker: Very Happy Dave.
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Israel Fehr is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter. Follow @israelfehr
