‘I don’t think I can take anymore’: Thunder $100 parlay backer cashes out for $80,000

Editor’s note: This is a follow-up to a previous story about Wayne Shelton’s championship parlay ticket, potentially worth $1.7 million.

Wayne Shelton — the bettor who placed a $100 parlay in May 2023 on Texas Rangers, Kansas City Chiefs and Oklahoma City Thunder championship futures into a $1.7 million wager — has officially cashed out.

On Tuesday morning, the Arizona resident posted a video to his Instagram story showing him cashing out his bet on DraftKings for $80,960.17. Shelton confirmed to ESPN that he is putting the wager behind him.

“I said last night, if we win this game and they offer at least 80 [thousand], I’m walking. Well, they’re offering 80 [thousand], and I don’t think I can take anymore,” Shelton said on the social media platform, referring to the Thunder’s win over the Mavericks on Monday night. “I want to keep going, but I’m a single dad and the money would be wonderful.”

Shelton’s cash out was as high as $100,000 at one point and fell to $30,000 when Oklahoma City lost two games in their second-round series against the Dallas Mavericks.

After the Thunder won Game 1 of the series, Shelton placed hedge bets at multiple sportsbooks for Dallas to advance in the playoffs past the Thunder. Shelton got varying odds at each book, but he estimates that he placed $10,000 worth of bets to win around $14,000 should the Mavs win the series.

Secondary market services WagerWire and PropSwap valued Shelton’s ticket at $171,460 and $201,717, respectively, at the time of the cash out, though there were no offers from prospective buyers on the table; Shelton had previously received offers via WagerWire but did not accept any.

Ultimately, the single father of one decided that the constant swings in value and emotion were becoming too demanding, so he decided to make his exit.

“Things got so crazy so fast,” Shelton told ESPN. “It got so overwhelming for me that the movement was so extreme. And you just don’t know until you’re in that situation how it’s going to affect you. In this case, I’m at that point where I didn’t want to walk, but we’re literally one game away from being totally screwed.”

While the experience was challenging, Shelton said he “never felt pressure from anyone” to make any one particular move and instead looked at the feedback he was getting from his sudden fame as a “sounding board.”

“It’s good to have support if you’re ever in a situation like this and you got a ticket like this, whether it’s people on the internet, [but] mostly I would be more referencing friends and family,” Shelton said. “You’re not going to be able to get through a ticket like this by yourself, so have that with you. But it’s totally an experience. You’ll love it. And you’ll never forget it.”