Five of the record 18,718 entries into the 2025 Circa Sports Survivor contest went a perfect 20-0 picking winners.
Key Takeaways
- The Vikings, Jaguars, Patriots, and Falcons came through for the winners in Week 18.
- The Bengals proved especially costly for one contestant who went 19-1.
- There was one massive hedge bet placed at Circa before the final week.
The group met at the Circa sportsbook in Las Vegas on Sunday to watch the final round of regular-season games that helped the five winners take home $3.743 million each from the $18.72-million prize pool.
#CircaSurvivor 2025🏈🏆
— Circa Sports (@CircaSports) January 5, 2026
Congratulations to our five 20-0 Winners!
They will split 💰$18,718,000💰, giving them each a total of 💰$3,743,600💰!
What a Great Season... see you all next year!
📄https://t.co/FP61WnzaHF pic.twitter.com/7pg5mK0QCI
Two of the final six contestants entering Week 18 picked the Minnesota Vikings, who knocked off the Green Bay Packers 16-3. The New England Patriots and Jacksonville Jaguars both won in blowout fashion to get another pair of entries into the winner’s circle. And the Atlanta Falcons held off the New Orleans Saints 19-17 to push the last successful contestant to 20-0, the only sweat among the final five.
The lone contestant to lose in Week 18 picked the Cincinnati Bengals, who were upset 20-18 by the Cleveland Browns in the early slate on Sunday. Cincinnati took an 18-17 lead with 1:29 to play in the game before Cleveland marched down the field and nailed a 49-yard field goal as time expired.
#CircaSurvivor 2025🏈🏆Week 18 Selections
— Circa Sports (@CircaSports) January 4, 2026
📄https://t.co/chwRtFkXCf pic.twitter.com/Uritxpc0i9
That one loss made the five winners an extra $600,000 each from the prize pool and left contestant PARTZ1 19-1 for the second consecutive year.
I am sad. Really wanted that blazer. Fun contest @CircaSports and special thanks to @JeffreyBenson12 and @LastMenPod the work you’ve done is much appreciated.
— Pete Tarsiewicz (@PeteTarz) January 4, 2026
2nd year in a row we’ve gone 19-1 so the feeling is quite familiar. But as a seasoned vet of @ElliotRoe1 we’re on to…
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Winner’s circle
Circa owner Derek Stevens guaranteed at least a $15-million prize pool, but the 2025 contest, with a $1,000 buy-in, received more than 4,000 more entries than the previous year. Participants were allowed up to 10 entries per person in the contest where one NFL team is selected to win each week. That team can’t be used again. The contest also contained double weeks during Thanksgiving and Christmas.
One of the Jaguars’ backers on Sunday was Casey Diener, a 46-year-old poker player from Austin, Texas, who did the contest with Joey Michael, according to a VSiN report. Diener told VSiN that the duo’s biggest move was when they took the Chicago Bears to beat the Philadelphia Eagles on Thanksgiving week.
“It was a great opportunity to take a shot, and it would put us in a great position,” Diener said. “Of course, if the Bears had lost, we wouldn’t be here, but it worked out and worked out better than we expected, as 900 entries were reduced to 49 after that game.”
Another winner, Gabe Patgorski, has built a following on the social media site X as Survivor Atlas, providing updates throughout the contest. Under the entry name Juicy Kewchi, he was one of the two contestants to select the Vikings in Week 18.
“Now that we’ve won it, I’m not going to stop sharing my advice and helping other people as we all love this contest and want to see it keep growing,” Patgorski told VSiN.
Hedging bets
It’s unknown at this time if there was an agreed-upon split pot among remaining contestants at some point late in the season. There were hedges, however.
Circa Sports director Jeffrey Benson said on Saturday that the book took a $700,000 bet on the Packers moneyline from one of the two Vikings’ backers that would’ve netted more than $2.5 million, the largest hedge ever in the contest’s six-year history.
Biggest Circa Survivor hedge we’ve ever taken came last night: $700k on the Packers ML at +355 to win $2.5 million and a healthy $10k bet on the TIE at 60/1 💰💰💰 https://t.co/tYI6FevrfT
— Jeffrey Benson (@JeffreyBenson12) January 4, 2026
There was also a $1.18 million wager placed by a contestant on the Dallas Cowboys moneyline on Christmas Day. However, just like with the Packers bet, Dallas won the game, leaving the book to collect the massive wager.
