Daniel Skubal bought two entries in the $14.3 million Circa Survivor contest and one in the Circa Million.
“The Million contest was almost kind of an afterthought,” Skubal, 37, said.
The Million, with a $6 million prize pool, consumed Skubal’s thoughts in recent weeks as the Las Vegas resident closed in on the top spot in the $1,000-entry contest, in which contestants make five weekly NFL picks against the spread.
Skubal, an accountant, teamed up with two co-workers on the Team BP entry to turn his afterthought into $1 million. They went 60-26-4 ATS (69.8 percent) for 62 points (one point for a win, half point for a push) to top a record field of 5,817 entries in the contest.
“It was a pressure cooker,” Skubal said. “None of us slept for weeks. We couldn’t eat. We couldn’t do anything. It’s the only thing that’s been on my mind for the past few weeks. An amazing experience.”
Fate and destiny
Team BP entered Week 18 a half-point out of the lead before going 2-2-1 to ascend to first. It pushed on the Bengals -2 (beat Steelers 19-17) on Jan. 4 and lost on the Buccaneers and Commanders on Sunday en route to an ominous 0-2-1 start. But most of the other top entries also struggled.
“The morning games were horrific,” Skubal said. “But, fortunately, teams didn’t make up any ground on us.”
As the early games ended, it was clear that if the Chargers covered as 4-point favorites over the Raiders in the afternoon and the Broncos covered as 10½-point favorites over the Chiefs, Skubal, a Colorado native, would be the sole $1 million winner.
“Nothing is for sure … but I felt the Chargers were definitely going to cover against the Raiders,” he said. “It just came down to the Broncos. Being from Colorado and a lifelong Broncos fan, it almost felt like it was our fate and our destiny for this to happen.”
The Chargers beat the Raiders 34-20, and the Broncos crushed the Chiefs 38-0 to clinch the contest for Team BP, which edged Path2Victory (which had Kansas City) by a half-point.
“I’ve been a huge Broncos fan since I was a kid. My family had season tickets,” Skubal said. “I just felt like it was meant to be for that to be the game to sway everything. That made it that much more special.”
From .500 to a million
Skubal was knocked out of Survivor after Week 3 and had a .500 record in Million through four weeks. Then he caught fire, hitting 74 percent of his picks the rest of the way.
Team BP went 21-4, with four 5-0 weeks and its lone 1-4 week of the season, to tie for second place in the second quarter of the contest to win $31,250.
“We really just cooked for a while. But at that point, there was still nine weeks left in the season, and thinking we’d be in this position was so far-fetched for all of us,” Skubal said. “We’re all gamblers, and we know you don’t stay hot for very long.”
But they continued to cook.
“Every week, I was kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop,” he said. “And it just never did.”
The miracle covers along the way included his beloved Broncos (-5½) beating the Browns 41-32 in Week 13 after coming up with their second pick-6 of Jameis Winston with 1:48 left and their third interception of the game in the end zone with 44 seconds to go.
“There were so many magical moments,” Skubal said. “It seems like the whole year we got all the bounces to go our way.”
Runner-up for $500K
The same can be said of San Diego native Robert Nguyen, 52, who has bought two entries in the Million every year since it started six years ago. He finished in the money for the first time this season in a big way, with his entry Path2Victory rallying for second place and a $500,000 prize.
“We’ve been knocking on the door the last couple years. This year, we broke through,” said Nguyen, who teamed up with his brother-in-law and two friends on the entry. “It’s still sinking in that we won that much. It’s crazy.”
They entered Week 18 two points out of first before going 3-1-1 to finish 61-28-1 (68.5 percent), a half-point behind Team BP.
The Chiefs were their lone loss. Nguyen, a principal software engineer, won on the Ravens (-18, beat Browns 35-10) and pushed on the Steelers +2 on Jan. 4 before clinching second Jan. 5 with covers by the Chargers and Cardinals (-4½, beat 49ers 47-24).
He was a model of consistency, going 3-2 or better in 16 of 18 weeks, while going 2-3 twice.
“We were really lucky not to go 1-4 or 0-5,” he said. “You have to be consistent and have the balls bounce your way.”
Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com. Follow @tdewey33 on X.