Super Bowl Bet Costs Phil Ivey And Billy Walters $2 Million

The Super Bowl attracts more betting in the US than any other sporting event with $94.5 million wagered in 2006 alone. This year’s showdown saw the New Orleans Saints score an impressive but surprising 31-17 victory over the Indianapolis Colts, the bookies’ favourite going into the match.
The underdog’s win ended up costing a few people big, most notably Phil Ivey and high stakes sports bettor Billy Walters, who were reputed to have placed a $2 million line bet on the Colts. While the exact figure hasn’t been confirmed, the MGM Mirage sports book director Jay Rood, did acknowledge that “We took a seven-figure bet on the Colts money line.”
Both Phil Ivey and Billy Walters are renowned gamblers but this particular episode will be one they will like to soon forget. Phil Ivey may be top of the all time Poker Tournament money list with $12,813,990 in earnings but his taste for sports betting has cost him dearly in the past and was rumoured to have lost a similar $2 million bet on a NBA’s Los Angeles Laker game while at the 2008 WSOP.
Billy Walters, before turning into one of the most respected and successful sports bettors in history, regularly used to blow his $500,000 a year income from his Kentucky car dealership on gambling until leaving the state and teaming up with highly successful betting syndicate known as ‘The Computer Group.’ Back in the 80’s, the group used early computer technology to gain advantages over unsophisticated bookies point spread calculations and cleaned up big time. Decades on Billy Walters still claims to be a 57% lifelong winner on his sports bets.
Despite Phil Ivey’s and Billy Walters’ latest slip up the pair are unlikely to lose any sleep over their enormous lost bet as the pair are worth several hundreds of millions of dollars between them.