Huge World Cup upset turns a $400,000 bet into $4.7 million
A bettor on Polymarket made a remarkable profit after wagering $400,000 that Spain would not win its World Cup match against Cape Verde and walking away with about $4.7 million. The bet was placed hours before kickoff, when the market assigned only about a 9% chance to that outcome.
The match ended 0-0, one of the tournament’s biggest shocks. Spain, the European champion and one of the favorites to win the 2026 World Cup, failed to score against Cape Verde, a small Atlantic island nation of about 500,000 people making its World Cup debut.
Cape Verde’s point was its first ever in a World Cup, and the result was all the more striking because it came against a team expected to win comfortably. The story also highlighted the goalkeeper, 40-year-old Vozinha, who plays in Portugal’s second division.
The article also described a losing opposite bet: another user staked $1 million on a Spain win, hoping to collect $85,000 in profit. That bettor lost the full amount. The winning user was identified by the handle “Fishalive.”
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