“Pops2008”, or Damon G. won more than $900,000 in the Westgate Las Vegas SuperContest. Damon is a 32-year-old Starbucks barista who won the most prestigious football handicapping in the world. The contest costs $1,500 to enter, and entries have risen from 345 in 2010 to 1,854 this year. The SuperContest often draws comparisons as the sports-betting equivalent to the World Series of Poker’s Main Event. Damon went 5-0 in week 17 of the NFL season to finish the season with a record of 54-28-3 (65.8 percent). Damon entered twice into the SuperContest and came in both 1st and 40th. His 1st place account won him $895,482, while his second account won $2,217. Damon added another $10,000 to his earnings by going 13-2 in a mini-contest over the last three weeks of the season. He ended up winning a grand total of $907,609.38 from a $3,000 investment.

Damon enjoys sports betting but doesn’t claim to be a big better. He says he’s a grinder and that he had entered the SuperContest the past three years with one entry and finished only above or right around .500 each year. This year, he decided to go with the maximum two entries but was in the middle of the huge pack for a good portion of the season before finally breaking into the top 50 (that’s how many places cash) after Week 12. The craziest part about Damon’s victory was that both of his accounts were tied for 8th entering week 17. Damon decided to play it safe and chose different victors for each account, hoping that at least one account would make it big. When asked how he could afford the $3,000 for the two SuperContest entries, Damon replied, “I decided last year, after just having one entry, that I wanted to give two a try. I just saved my money by cutting expenses and making sacrifices in my social life. I worked and just got ready for the football season.”