July 25, 2024

Kiwi influencer wins $1 million online, betting 10 cents on each of his followers

By Ramona Depares

How do you successfully increase your followers on Instagram with zero advertising and 100% organic reach? By hitting the top online casinos NZ and scoring a $1 million jackpot, of course!

Kiwi influencer Tim Naki – born Tim Myers – embarked on a blackjack challenge in an attempt to push up his numbers on the popular social media platform. The gimmick? Starting out with 15,000 followers, he committed to bet 10 cents on each one of them every day, to an initial total of $1,500.

In a move that surprised those who followed him, the gambling influencer, who specializes in sports betting and horse racing, this time opted to try his luck at NZ online casinos rather than sportsbooks.

When the $1,500 turned into $1 million, the online community was stunned. Tim Naki’s game of choice turned out to be a lucky one, as he proceeded to embark on a 90-day gambling stint that would eventually see him walk away a millionaire.

The question begs itself – will we see Tim do a 180 degree turn from horses to blackjack? Could be, especially as the young influencer has now self-styled as ‘the blackjack entrepreneur’. Moreover, his Instagram account reveals plans to take this blackjack adventure forward in the future, so it’s just possible that this was not a one-off.

Tim Naki’s winning strategy

So how did Tim Naki land on his million dollar jackpot? While many NZ online casinos offer the potential, very few players actually succeed in this quest. Tim appears to be using a variation of the Martingale strategy, albeit unplanned. The strategy dictates that players should continue doubling their bet no matter what happens, and tends to be favored by high-rollers on the blackjack and roulette tables.

It’s not without its pitfalls, of course. A few losses at the start can easily see you run out of bankroll before you’ve even had a chance to get to the higher levels. In Tim’s case, his commitment was to place a 10 cents bet for every IG follower every day. As those numbers climbed to the sky, so did his bets.

Turning his $1,500 into a million took a total of 90 days, with Tim playing religiously every day. Although many questioned how long he could last, given the fact his bets increased heavily on the daily, he managed to run into considerable luck by securing a staggering 7 wins out of 10 hands in the early stages. Without these wins, Tim could very easily have found himself with $0 in the bank and no more bets to place.

However, his ploy worked and his followers’ count continued to rise in parallel with the size of the bets. The Courier Mail reports how, by Day 50 he had reached 320,000 followers, translating into a daily bet of $32,000 per day on one hand.

By mid-April he had reached 810,000 followers, which meant an $81,000 bet. And by May, he was well into the six figures, telling Forbes AU that: “the blackjack gods were on my side”. Of course, one could argue that while luck played a considerable role, Tim had chosen his game wisely by opting for blackjack rather than, say, pokies.

Blackjack tables at a top paying online casino NZ typically come with a 0.5% house edge, making the game one of the most potentially lucrative for players. When you do the math, this translates into a 49.5% chance of success for the player, with the house winning 50.5% of the time. In casino language, these are some pretty good odds.

The statistics worked in Tim’s favor during the first 7 bets, so that by the time he started losing he had already strengthened his bankroll considerably. As soon as he hit $971,000 in profit, he started planning an exit strategy upon reaching the $1 million mark. However, part of him wanted to pass the 100 day benchmark.

But it was not to be. Lady Luck decided to start smiling in the other direction and, with no warning, Tim watched his million being eaten away one loss at a time. The final day, Day 90, saw him put down a $195,000 bet. He lost. In the previous 7 days, his losses totalled $565,000.

It was at this point that Tim decided to call it quits instead of attempting to recover his $1 million, telling his followers that there would be no Day 91 of blackjack. In the end, he walked away with $500,000 of profit. Not bad for 90 days’ work.

He described his win – massive, regardless of everything – as a “statistical anomaly” when speaking to Forbes. He also took the opportunity to say a few words about responsible gambling, telling the journalist:

“It’s almost a good thing for people watching to understand just how quickly things change with gambling. You do it for entertainment and fun. You should never do it to make money because you won’t make money. “A lot of people forget [gambling] is just meant to be fun. I was taught that from a very young age. Don’t expect to win and don’t expect it to spit anything out the other end.”

He has taken care to repeat this message even to other media houses, telling the Courier Mail: “There’s no secret to winning, but there is a secret to not losing and that is just don’t bloody gamble,” before adding: “Taking that hiding at the end was a stark reality check for myself and also for all the followers.It’s certainly not something anyone should try and replicate. I went into each day knowing fully well that with the law of averages, there was going to have to start being some losses more than likely.”

Background of Tim Naki

Tim grew up in a horseracing family, with his grandad and uncles training as jockeys and his father even living in Australia for a full year in hopes of making it as a full-time jockey. This fostered his strong love of horse racing, so much so that he revealed to Punter of the Week that he actually owns a part share in a mare called Sneaky Sunrise.

And for those who wonder whether online blackjack will replace this love, the answer appears to be a strong ‘no’, as his reply to Punter of the Week revealed: “You can’t beat that feeling of winning [at horseracing] as an owner too. This will sound controversial because of the blackjack run I went on, but seeing my horse win at Flemington trumped that feeling. That thrill is just second to none.”

Tim will now be taking a short break from blackjack before he kicks off another Monday to Friday series with lower stakes. Any free time is likely to be taken up planning his December wedding – undoubtedly, his $500,000 win is sure to come in handy when planning his new life.