Jamal Murray’s ‘Meaningless’ Three-Pointer Gave One Bettor A $215,000 Positive Swing

With the clock running out in the Nuggets’ 129-127 loss to the Utah Jazz on Sunday, Denver’s Jamal Murray pulled up for a three-pointer and drained it giving him a Nuggets playoff record of 50 points.

Since Denver was down by five points, Murray’s shot really had no effect on the outcome of the game other than it meant that, along with Donovan Mitchell’s 51 points, made it the first time in playoff history that a player on each team scored 50 points in a postseason game and only the sixth time it’s happened in the entire history of the NBA.

HOWEVER…

The spread of the game was that Jazz minus-3.5 or 4, so…

Which meant numerous gamblers out there lost their bets and suffered a bad beat thanks to Murray’s backdoor cover three.

HOWEVER…

Yahoo Sports reports…

According to Elisa Richardson, head of communications and public relations at BetMGM, one client had two big bets on the Nuggets at +3.5. One was a $55,000 bet at -110 odds and the other was a $60,000 bet at -120 odds.

That bettor was looking at losing $115,000. Murray’s shot changed the loss to a $100,000 win. That $215,000 swing is inconceivable to most bettors. And surely there were plenty of people with Jazz tickets who were beside themselves, although probably not invested for six figures.

Talk about your unexpected reversal of fortunes.

And he wasn’t alone.

According to MSN.com…

Patrick Eichner, director of communications for PointsBet, told Insider that one bettor on the site had a $30,000 wager on the Nuggets to cover, meaning Murray’s final three was nearly a $60,000 swing in their favor.

Adrienne Prather-Marcos, head of public relations at William Hill, told Insider that the biggest bet the company took on the game was a $12,000 wager on the Nuggets as 4-point dogs. Murray’s shot turned that bettor’s night from a $12,000 loss into a $10,000 win.

As Murray proved on Sunday, in the world of sports betting there is no such thing as a “meaningless” three-pointer.