Circa Survivor Crowns Eight Undefeated Millionaires

Sure the final week of the NFL regular season may have lacked a bit of drama in terms of the actual season as only two playoff spots were up for grabs. But as far as the two huge Circa contests were concerned, life changing money remained up for grabs right down to the final game.

Circa Survivor, where contestants pay $1,000 per entry in the winner-take-all format and need to pick one team to win their game each week, ballooned to a prize pool of $14,266,000 this season. That means Circa sold 14,266 entries as they take no rake.

Going for the Survivor Tie

Heading into Week 18, which is actually Week 20 in the contest (more on that below), a mere 18 contestants remained alive. By a little simple math, each Survivor had a ticket worth $792,555. Some entries had modestly more or less actual value as you can only select each team once per season, so available selections varied. 

As it turned out, that really mattered. 

The Bucs as 13.5 favorites were the best play available to anyone, and five entrants took them. The game was dicey for a while but Tampa Bay held on. Two entries survived with the Colts beating the Jags in OT, and one other breezed through with the Cardinals over the depleted 49ers.

A hearty congrats to the eight Survivor survivors:

As for the other 10? Sadly they couldn’t quite get there. 

Eight entries had the Falcons at home vs the Panthers. The Falcons entered the game alive for the NFC South crown but they needed the Bucs to lose to the Saints. It didn’t happen, of course, and the Panthers prevailed in OT in an up-and-back game. The other two entries were on the Packers, who lost to the Bears on a last-second field goal. You can feel the heartbreak and agony.

The  eight contestants who made it through the Survivor gauntlet took home $1,783,250 each. Not a bad chop for a $1,000 buyin.  

Race to the Finish

The 14,266 entries to begin with were by far a record for Circa, as were 8 making it through the whole season. But with an asterisk. 

As mentioned earlier, the contest actually requires 20 picks as Circa counts Thanksgiving/Black Friday as a week unto itself (4 games) as they do for Christmas/Boxing Day (3 games). Since so few teams play those weeks, entrants need to map out their path so they have teams available to pick on those slates. 

That was not the original format, so as Circa Sports Director of Operations Jeffrey Benson notes, the contest had “35 winners in Year One, but there weren’t holiday weeks.”

As for the 10 entrants who got so excruciatingly close to the finish line, there was the opportunity to bet against their pick and at least lock in a nice payday. Circa CEO Derek Stevens offered credit lines to anyone wanting to lay off some risk in house. Did everyone take advantage? 

“Most got hedges in but not all,” Benson told Casinos.com. 

It’s important to note that others may have monetized at other shops or sold pieces of their entries. And the eventual winners maybe did the same. But still, it's a sweet payday along with the accolades that go along with it.

Circa Millions Also a Nail Biter

The other biggie, Circa Millions VI, came right down to the end, too. In this contest, entrants pick 5 games against a point spread each week for a total of 90 selections. Wins get a full point, ties garner a half. Circa sets the lines, generally on Thursdays except for holiday weeks. 

The contest guaranteed to pay out at least $6 million with no rake. The overall winner gets $1 million and “a coveted Circa Sports blue jacket.” Second place gets $500,000, and anyone in the top 100 gets a payout as well. There was a sizable Booby Prize for finishing last, in addition to quarterly prizes. All in all there are 126 ways to win as per Circa.

“Victory Formation” entered Week 18 with the lead thanks to a sparkling 59-24-2 record (70.58%). Unfortunately the contestant went just 1-4 and ceded the crown to Team BP, who was just ½ point back going in and went 2-2-1. Path2Victory went 3-1-1 in the final week and jumped from a 5th place tie all the way to 2nd and the $500,000 payday. Victory Formation ended up with $375,000 and a 3rd place tie with ROBMOTAG-2.

Team-BP finished 60-26-4 (68.89%, which narrowly missed hitting the record win. The $100,000 Booby Prize went to THE BROWN CLOWN-1, who matched the 62 points, just in reverse. Talley’s III fell just a half point short and took home $50,000 for 2nd “worst”.

And with that, the 2024 season is in the books! Look for details on the 2025 contest some time in May. Circa guaranteed $10 Million for Survivor this season and easily surpassed it, while Circa Million had a modest overlay with their $6 Million guarantee. 

With the arguable success of the 2024 contests, it’s likely we’ll see increased guarantees next season.

(Image: Joe Hendrickson / Alamy)