Daniel Skubal bought two entries in the $14.3 million Circa Survivor contest and one in the Circa Million.
“The millionaire competition 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 finished in the top spot in the $1,000-entry contest, in which participants make five NFL picks each week against the spread.
Skubal, an accountant, teamed up with two associates on the Team BP post 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 a 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 I’ve been thinking about for the last few weeks. An amazing experience.”
Fate and destiny
Team BP entered Week 18 half a point off the lead before going 2-2-1 to move up to first. It pushed the Bengals -2 (beating the Steelers 19-17) on Jan. 4 and lost to the Buccaneers and Commanders on Sunday en route to an ominous 0-2-1 start. But most of the other top entries struggled as well.
“The morning games were terrible,” Skubal said. “But luckily the teams didn’t make up any ground against us.”
When the early games ended, it was clear that if the Chargers were covered as 4-point favorites over the Raiders in the afternoon and the Broncos were covered as 10½-point favorites over the Chiefs, Skubal, of Colorado, would be the only $1 million winner.
“Nothing is certain … but I felt the Chargers would definitely 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 destiny and our destiny for this to happen.”
The Chargers beat the Raiders 34-20, and the Broncos crushed the Chiefs 38-0 to win the contest for Team BP, who beat Path2Victory (which had Kansas City) by half a point.
“I’ve been a big Broncos fan since I was little. My family had season tickets,” Skubal said. “I just felt like it was meant to be the game that would affect everything. It made it so much more special.”
From 0.500 to a million
Skubal was eliminated from Survivor after week 3 and had a record of .500 in millions over 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 in the second quarter of the competition to win $31,250.
“We really just cooked for a while. But at that point there were still nine weeks left in the season, and to think we would be in this position was so far-fetched for all of us,” Skubal said. “We’re all players, and we know you don’t stay warm for very long.”
But they continued to cook.
“Every week I was waiting for the other shoe to drop,” he said. “And it just never did.”
The miracle saves along the way included his beloved Broncos (-5½) beating the Browns 41-32 in Week 13 after coming up with his second pick-6 by Jameis Winston with 1:48 left and their third interception of the game in the end zone with 44 seconds left.
“There were so many magical moments,” Skubal said. “It seems like all year we had all the bounces go our way.”
Runner up for $500,000
The same can be said for 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 for the last few years. This year we broke through,” said Nguyen, who joined his brother-in-law and two friends in the entry. “It’s still sinking in that we won so 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), half a point behind Team BP.
The Chiefs were their lone loss. Nguyen, a software engineering major, won at the Ravens (-18, beat the Browns 35-10) and pushed the Steelers +2 on Jan. 4 before taking second Jan. 5 with covers of 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 fortunate not to go 1-4 or 0-5,” he said. “You have to be consistent and make the balls bounce your way.”
Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@ theplayerlounge.com. Follow @tdewey33 on X.
