Four childhood friends from Indiana turned a disastrous NFL betting season into a $100,000 payday by finishing dead last in the Circa Sports Million contest.
Rob Lappin, Ryan Clinton, Adam Foust and Scott Bucher, all 41 and residents of Indiana, posted a 25-64-1 record against the spread — a winning percentage of just 28.1 percent, the worst in contest history. But in a competition that rewards futility, that was exactly what they needed to claim the $100,000 last-place booby prize.
“We’re looking at it that we set a point record, not only for the losers, but for the whole contest. If we flipped it, it would’ve been the best record in contest history,” Lappin said during Friday night’s check presentation ceremony at Circa in Las Vegas. “If we’d just flipped every one of our entries, we would’ve won $1 million. So, I think next year we might buy two entries and do one slate we like and the other slate will be the exact opposite of what we like.”
The contest, which costs $1,000 to enter, had a record 5,685 entries this season. Entrants make five weekly picks against the spread over the 18-week NFL season. The winner went 60-29-1.
The group, operating under the alias “GCIndycate” (with GC standing for God’s Country, their nickname for Plymouth, Indiana, where they all grew up), started the season trying to pick winners. After a 7-18 start, they changed strategy.
“We’re like, ‘This sucks. We don’t know NFL. What the hell have we been doing?’ We were seriously questioning ourselves,” Lappin said. “I guess whatever I think, I should just start picking opposite of it because then it might win. At that point, to win this, we’ve got to hit like 80 percent of the rest of the picks. Or we can look at tanking and go for this booby prize. We just kind of said, ‘Trust the process.’ ”
The process involved rotating who made picks each week, with one person making two and the other three making one each. Their rule: “Don’t go 0-2,” which soon became don’t go 2-0. Each friend has a different handicapping method: Lappin is analytics-based, Clinton is a “feel” guy, Foust looks at schedule spots, and Bucher — well, Lappin isn’t sure.
“I don’t know what Scott does, truthfully. I think he has a wheel with all four AFC South teams on it and he spins it every week and throws a dart at the wheel and is like, ‘Well, I guess I’m going Falcons again,’ ” Lappin said.
Heading into Week 18, GCIndycate led the last-place leaderboard by 1½ points. They sealed the booby prize with an 0-5 week, losing with picks on the 49ers (+1½), Cardinals (+7), Dolphins (+10½), Packers (+8½) and Ravens (-3½).
When Lappin tells people he won $100,000 for finishing last, they’re confused. “Their face just kind of twists up and it breaks their brain,” he said. “They’re like, ‘Wait, you got last? But you just said you won money.’ ”
Mental Handicappers (27-61-2) and Son of David (28-62) tied for second-to-last and split the $50,000 prize.
