One round down

Have you ever wondered what you could have won if you had a limitless amount of sports betting luck on your side? Well, VegasSlotsOnline News has done the calculations for you.

The first round of the FIFA World Cup 2022 group stages has come to a close and the soccer tournament has already provided some incredible stories. Saudia Arabia kicked off the surprising results with a victory against Lionel Messi’s Argentina, and Japan followed this up by overwhelming a German side brimming with world-class talent.

Now the dust has settled on those first 16 games, bettors are counting their winnings (or losses). Some have proven luckier than most, including one bettor from the UK who made ￡2,500 ($3,017) from a ￡5 ($6) bet on the England v Iran result, or Twitch streamer Trainwreck who bagged himself a staggering $1.5m+ from a single parlay.

a multimillion or even a multiquintillion-payday

Of course, those totals pale in comparison to what you could have won if you had created a parlay including all of the correct picks for every single game. You could have earned yourself a multimillion or even a multiquintillion-payday… yes you read that correctly. VSO News has scoured the odds from sportsbooks to find out what a $1 wager could have won if you had the forecasting powers of a soccer god.

Win, lose, or draw

If you had somehow gazed into a crystal ball and placed $1 on a parlay including every single correct result so far, you would have taken home a profit of $7,798,456 exactly.

Take a look at the odds for each result here:

The title for the shortest odds in the first round of the World Cup went to Portugal in the battle against Ghana. Sportsbooks priced Cristiano Ronaldo’s team at just +250 to take the win. Ultimately, that contest ended a little closer than most oddsmakers may have thought in a 3-2 final result. Ghana even just missed out on a last-minute equalizer after a blunder from the Portugal keeper.

sportsbooks gave Saudi Arabia the longest pre-game odds

As you might expect, sportsbooks gave Saudi Arabia the longest pre-game odds of the first round against Argentina. Messi’s team was one of the favorites to lift the trophy at the end of the competition, priced at +550 prior to kick-off. As such, it came as a great to surprise to everyone when Saudi Arabia managed to win the game 2-1 with two goals in quick succession in the 48th and 53rd minutes:

Other notable odds include the +680 for Japan. Germany is one of the most successful teams in the World Cup with four total tournament wins and a roster of strong talent. However, Japan overwhelmed the European powerhouse this week in a shocking 2-1 result that got everybody talking. Germany now joins Costa Rica towards the bottom of Group E as a result, while Japan sits behind just Spain at the top.

A punt on the score

Now, $7.8m is all good and well, but what if you wanted the kind of cash that someone like Elon Musk could only dream of? Well, betting on the correct result for each game would certainly meet that requirement. If you got the right score for every fixture, you could have secured a light $75,715,075,517,166,600,192… although good luck finding a sportsbook that could hand you 75 quintillion.

Here are the results and odds:

Two fixtures had the joint-most predictable scorelines in the first round of games according to sportsbooks. USA drew with Wales 1-1, a scoreline that bookmakers priced up at +500. That’s exactly the same odds they gave for Switzerland to beat Cameroon 1-0, something that the European team did courtesy of a goal from Breel Embrolo in the 48th minute. A $1 bet on these two games together would return just $35.

Now, onto the most shocking results of the first round. While Saudi Arabia’s 2-1 victory over Argentina is certainly up there at odds of +10000, it’s actually not the most against-the-odds result. That award goes to England versus Iran, which ended 6-2. A $1 bet on just this result would have returned a $500 profit at +50000.

Spain to beat Costa Rica 7-0 would have secured a price of +9000

Among the other notable odds, a bet on Spain to beat Costa Rica 7-0 would have secured a price of +9000. The Spaniards sealed the emphatic victory with goals from six different players, with only Ferran Torres scoring twice. A wager on Japan to beat Germany 2-1, meanwhile, would return just $22 from $1. The first round also saw three goalless games, each priced at between +800 and +900.

Of course, without magical powers, you’d have to be a madman to place bets like these, but we’re all allowed to dream. All historical odds were fully researched by the VSO News team and based on multiple sportsbooks.