• A New York sports bettor known as “Parlay Patz” faces charges for threatening athletes who have the ability to impact his bets. The criminal complaint, which was filed Feb. 24 in Florida by FBI Special Agent Daniel Nowak, alleges that Benjamin Tucker Patz used anonymous social media accounts to threaten NFL, MLB, college basketball and college football players, as well as their friends.
• Patz gained notoriety in the sports betting world through a series of articles published in 2019 detailing his $1.1 million in gross winnings from parlays, usually large favorites on the money line.

• Parlay Patz Twitter

Ben “Parlay Patz” Patz was born in 1996 and began wagering on sporting events as soon as legally possible. Once he became eighteen, he joined an offshore sportsbook and started placing bets on games. Due to his enormous success with parlay betting, his buddies gave him the nickname “Parlay Patz.” His first legal wager was on a Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao fight for $90. From there he ended up bankrolling on numerous bets and took his money to Europe where he quit the betting game. During his time in France, he attended the American University of Paris. After over a year in Paris, he returned to the US and began placing wagers again. This time, he was unlucky and lost all the remaining savings he had from his first stint as a successful sports bettor.

According to ActionNetwork.com (which features Patz's bets), the amateur gambler collected nearly $700,000 in just three weeks from parlay bets. The run for Patz started when he hit a 15-leg parlay for $237,000. The total cost for this parlay? Patz followed this up with a 13-leg parlay that paid out $326,000 and cost him a total of $7,000.

But this blow to his bank account didn’t stop him from continuing to place bets. He went on to win a 12-game parlay with a $75,000 payout. The offshore sportsbook used was not a licensed and regulated establishment and refused to pay Patz his winnings. They instead paid him $12,000 of the $75,000. Due to it being an illegal operation there was no form of recourse to be done for him to try and receive the entire pot. After this experience, he went on to be very cautious whenever he decided to bet at all. The repeal of PASPA played a huge part in Patz’s full return to the world of sports wagers. Being a resident of New York, Patz has to drive over the bridge into New Jersey territory where he is able to access their legal mobile sports betting platform. Once he’s officially in the neighboring state, he parks in a grocery store parking lot where he opens up his sportsbook account and places his bets. His two favorite sports to wager on are football and basketball, both collegiate and professional teams.

Legal Issues Surrounding Parlay Patz

In late February 2020, Patz was charged with threatening violent acts against athletes. In the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Patz was charged by attorney Maria Chapa Lopez. He is being charged with violating code 18 U.S.C. § 875(c) or transmitting threats in interstate or foreign commerce.

While the investigation is only in the beginning stages, Patz was allegedly threatening players through social media under multiple burner accounts. Threats included killing players and their families with dull knives, beheading them, and killing them while they slept. Some notes regarding the legal issues for Parlay Patz:

• Daniel A. Nowak investigated the case.
• The first known threat came in March 2019 to a Pepperdine University basketball player.
• Patz’s account was reported to Facebook the following day.
• The threats continued on July 4 to a Toronto Blue Jays player on Instagram.
• A Tampa Bay Rays player received a threat on July 20th.
• On the same day, Patz threatened an Atlanta Braves players’ girlfriend through Instagram.
• On July 27, a different Braves player received Instagram threats.
• The following day, an Oakland Athletics player received five threats that increased in violence.
• To close the month, a San Diego Padres player and his wife received threats from Patz.
• In August, a subpoena was issued for the three Instagram accounts.
• In September, Judge Amanda Sansone issued search warrants for Patz’s linked email accounts.
• It was discovered that 307 accounts had received threatening messages from Patz.
• In December, Judge Sansone issued a search warrant for a different email account.
• To begin 2020, Judge Sansone issued a search warrant for Patz’s Instagram account.
• Another 18 messages were found to be sent to various college and professional athletes
• FBI Special Agent Nowak issued a warrant for his arrest on February 24 2020.
• On March 6, Patz posted a $100,000 bail bond and returned to California.

How Can Parlay Patz Afford To Place Such Large Wagers?

The 23-year-old sports bettor not only went to the American University of Paris for a while, but he also attended Columbia’s business school. He became the chairman and co-founder of a business called Lakeworth Holdings. This company is an international investment company based out of New York. They focus on helping clients with technology and energy domain work. Presently, they have 15 companies that they operate globally. It is with this income that Parlay Patz can wager on sports betting in the way that he does, making bigger bets. However, now that he’s found the proper method to his madness, real money sports betting could become his full-time job.

Parlay Patz & His Comeback To Sports Betting

After becoming a mobile sports bettor in the state of New Jersey, Patz lost out on a seven-team parlay with college basketball that cost him $30,000. It was only after a win on a single game bet that raked in $19,000 for the Green Bay Packers did Patz come to a realization about his sports betting strategy. Once he developed a strategy for his legal sports betting that wasn’t just about the statistical data for each team, he has skyrocketed into fame. He is winning his parlays left and right, almost calling it too easy at this point.

The Parlay King Is Born

His new winning strategy was changed in terms of betting the spread as he normally would. Once he realized teams didn’t care whether or not they made a certain number of points and cared more about winning the game, he began to place money on the moneyline. His moneyline parlay strategy has catapulted him into the limelight. In three weeks’, he won $672,000 on four separate parlay wagers. The biggest payout and longest of those bets was a $7,000, 13-game parlay that resulted in a $333,000 payout. His fifth parlay bet weeks later consisted of an eight-game parlay wager. His winnings on that came to the sum of $183,892. The very next day, he put in a parlay for five games worth $25,000. Again, he employed the method of moneyline parlaying. The wager won Patz $116,260. Six parlay wagers in less than two months have allowed Parlay Patz to win a total of $972,152. It’s safe to say that Parlay Patz is making a patsy out of sportsbooks as his hot streak with his new method will get him over the million-dollar mark as soon as he wagers next and the hot streak continues.

The Future of Parlay Patz

After coming to his successful parlay strategy of sticking strictly to moneyline wagers, Parlay Patz won over a million dollars in less than forty days. This skyrocketed him to make headlines in the betting world. Like many of the other famous sports bettors Patz was treating himself to private plane charters for vacations and other gifts with the money he’s earned through his parlays.

All that has come crashing down around Patz now after being exposed for making death threats to college athletes. In Patz bravado and brilliance, he flew too close to the sun and got too big for his own good. In no way is making death threats to people acceptable, regardless of how much money you might have lost. Patz has a lot of growing up to do if he wants to get back into the good graces of the public, and he might have plenty of time to think about his next bet.

Parlay Pats Problem Gambling

Parlay Patz Twitter

One of the darker sides of the gambling world is problem gambling and this can manifest in a number of ways. For some, it could be betting more money than you actually have like betting on credit too often. For others, like Parlay Patz case, it could be threatening and harassing athletes because your bets lose from time to time. It’s important to recognize that sports betting involves risk and there is always the chance your bet can lose. It’s part of the game. However, Parlay Patz had to learn the hard way that not every bet he places is going to win him millions, and harassing athletes won’t win him that money back. Parlays have the lowest winning percentage in sports betting also, so parlays have to be viewed as higher risks when betting on sports.