Westgate SuperContest winner claims $1.3 million prize

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  • Hman
    SBR Posting Legend
    • 11-04-17
    • 21429

    #1
    Westgate SuperContest winner claims $1.3 million prize
    Westgate SuperContest winner claims $1.3 million prize
    David Purdum
    1/3/17

    Briceton Branch Jr. had always been impressed by his dad's football prognostication skills.

    They'd watch the NFL together and note how pops seemingly always picked the winner. So, in August, when his dad picked him up after high school football practice and mentioned that he was entering the nation's most prestigious football handicapping contest, Briceton Jr. smiled and told his dad, "I know you can win it."

    He was right.

    On Sunday, Briceton Branch Sr. clinched the Westgate SuperContest with the Atlanta Falcons' 22-10 win over the Carolina Panthers. In his first time in the contest, Branch beat more than 2,700 handicappers -- the largest field ever -- and won $1.3 million (about $950,000 after taxes). Each entry costs $1,500, and participants make five NFL picks against the spread each week.

    The SuperContest has exploded in popularity over the past decade, producing a variety of winners. Last year, a Starbucks barista won. In 2013, a financial trader with expertise in math and statistics took home the title. This year, it went to Branch, a 39-year-old entrepreneur from Portland, Oregon, who started getting interested in sports betting in 2012.

    He did it, he says, with a mix of gut feel and sleep therapy -- or at least that's all he'd reveal.

    "I can't give up my recipe because the oddsmakers will read about it, and then that will give them some light to try to counter on me, because it's a silent game of chess," Branch told ESPN in a Tuesday phone interview. "But I can just tell you, when I do run my process and pick my teams, I do feel my gut out and I do sleep on them. I can tell you that much. But as far as what I'm looking for, this and that, I can't speak on that. That's like a million-dollar question."

    In the SuperContest, contestants make five picks against the spread in each of the 17 weeks of the NFL season. Branch, who played under the alias "Grannys Boy," entered Week 17 with a 2.5-point lead. He went with the Detroit Lions, Buffalo Bills, New Orleans Saints, Jacksonville Jaguars and Falcons in the final week, going 3-2 to prevail.

    Overall, Branch went 58-22-5 for 60.5 points in the contest, besting second-place finishers Schematic Advantage and Howdoiplay XX by 1.5 points.

    Branch said he had no concrete plans for his winnings, except for "real estate." He's hoping to buy his childhood home, where he lived in Portland with his foster mom, the late Loretta Frison, who was the inspiration for his contest alias, "Grannys Boy."

    Branch first learned of the SuperContest last year from a friend. He traveled to Las Vegas in August and signed up for this year's event. It was the start of a stressful four-month grind that he says turned in his favor in Week 5 of the season.

    Branch went 1-4 in Week 4, his worst of the season, and found himself four games behind the leader. He rebounded in Week 5 with a 4-1 effort to remain in the hunt. He took over the lead in Week 12 and went 5-0 in Week 16 to secure a cushion heading into the final week.

    "I kind of hid in the pack and messed around with teams like Cleveland and San Francisco," Branch said. "Once we started to come down the final stretch, that's when I took off on them."

    Branch celebrated with a few friends and family at Las Vegas nightclub Tao, where they took in a Gucci Mane concert on New Year's Eve. Branch said he didn't eat dinner that night and remembered his breakfast as his only meal of the day.

    "I wasn't nervous," he said. "I knew I was going to win."

    So did his son.
  • eidolon
    SBR Hall of Famer
    • 01-02-08
    • 9531

    #2
    $1.30 dollars he loses all his money or is arrested in the next 12 months
    Comment
    • jjgold
      SBR Aristocracy
      • 07-20-05
      • 388179

      #3
      ok now he becomes tout

      lol
      Comment
      • Ralphie Halves
        SBR MVP
        • 12-13-09
        • 4507

        #4
        He was on local radio a few times, as they often interview the guys on the leaderboard. Didn't seem like the type to go and piss it away.

        And you can easily follow these people's picks come Friday mornings, just an FYI. Easy google search.
        Comment
        • A4K
          SBR Hall of Famer
          • 10-08-12
          • 5243

          #5
          Originally posted by jjgold
          ok now he becomes tout

          lol
          Wouldn't you?
          Comment
          • Sam Odom
            SBR Aristocracy
            • 10-30-05
            • 58063

            #6
            sweet story
            Comment
            • cankid
              SBR Hall of Famer
              • 08-22-08
              • 7218

              #7
              nice record good for him congrats!!
              Comment
              • RudyRuetigger
                SBR Aristocracy
                • 08-24-10
                • 65084

                #8
                good story now, lets see where that kid is in 10 years though

                I say broke, buried, on drugs
                Comment
                • mngambler
                  SBR MVP
                  • 08-01-11
                  • 2890

                  #9
                  Originally posted by A4K
                  Wouldn't you?
                  I'd have no problem making money off people stupid enough to give it to me for some coin flips which is basically what a tout is, a marketing person
                  Comment
                  • A4K
                    SBR Hall of Famer
                    • 10-08-12
                    • 5243

                    #10
                    Originally posted by mngambler
                    I'd have no problem making money off people stupid enough to give it to me for some coin flips which is basically what a tout is, a marketing person
                    Comment
                    • RudyRuetigger
                      SBR Aristocracy
                      • 08-24-10
                      • 65084

                      #11
                      Originally posted by mngambler
                      I'd have no problem making money off people stupid enough to give it to me for some coin flips which is basically what a tout is, a marketing person
                      great point

                      never viewed it that way

                      always thought touts were the worst, then insurance...but yes marketing fukkwads need on this list
                      Comment
                      • jjgold
                        SBR Aristocracy
                        • 07-20-05
                        • 388179

                        #12
                        all random
                        some win and some lose

                        changes every year

                        DICE CHUCKERS
                        Comment
                        • rm18
                          SBR Posting Legend
                          • 09-20-05
                          • 22291

                          #13
                          His kid being recruited for cfb, maybe they will rig games
                          Comment
                          • jjgold
                            SBR Aristocracy
                            • 07-20-05
                            • 388179

                            #14
                            The winners play it off they have a system

                            jerkoffs its random yearly
                            Comment
                            • Sam Odom
                              SBR Aristocracy
                              • 10-30-05
                              • 58063

                              #15
                              JJ , you had a system once... had something to do with a 25c blackjack game

                              what was it ?
                              Comment
                              • jjgold
                                SBR Aristocracy
                                • 07-20-05
                                • 388179

                                #16
                                Sammy MARTINGALE
                                Comment
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