By late Sunday afternoon, Sonia Davis was left with one more game to sweat out.
Michigan’s narrow 58-57 escape of rival Michigan State and Boston College’s narrow 53-52 victory over ACC foe Virginia had the Las Vegas resident with a perfect 14-of-14 William Hill Progressive Contest card.
A 15-of-15 card would net her the weekend’s 15-of-15 jackpot. That final piece was the Houston Rockets, who she needed to defeat the Dallas Mavericks. The Rockets held a slim 54-51 edge over the Mavs at halftime.
“I was so nervous when it headed into the third quarter,” she said. “And then … the just blew them out.”
The Rockets outscored the visitors 44-17 in the third quarter, rendering the fourth quarter all but meaningless in what was eventually a 136-103 win. She counted down the clock until she was officially a $16,085 winner.
Davis, who played her winning ticket at Lucky Club in North Las Vegas, immediately made plans to go collect her winnings on Monday morning. She is the first William Hill customer to hit a 15-of-15 in the Progressive Contest this basketball season.
Davis, who enjoys betting NBA hoops, football and baseball, said she has no major plans for the money other than finishing off the payments on her car.
“I’ve hit plenty of parlays before, won $700 or $1,000,” she said. “But nothing like this.”
The William Hill Progressive Contest card hits all locations in Nevada towards the end of each week during the basketball season. It costs just $5 to play the card, and customers can play it as many times as they want. A designated list of 20-30 weekend basketball games will be on the card, and customers have to pick 15 of them – just winners, no point spreads. A 15-for-15 card gets customers in on the jackpot.
The jackpot will now reset to $10,000. Each week, if the jackpot is not hit, 80% of that weekend’s handle on the cards will be added to the jackpot for the following weekend.
