Thousands of World Cup punters win big on 120/1 bet that everyone saw coming

Thousands of lucky punters have won a massive pay day thanks to the standout performances of three of the world's best footballers.

The 2026 World Cup has already generated plenty of excitement with several of the opening matches being high-scoring affairs with standout performances.

Players like Folarin Balogun, Crysencio Summerville and Antonio Nusa have surprised with impressive performances in their first matches.

However, the biggest performers so far at the World Cup have undoubtedly been the star players with Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland all reminding fans why they are among the best in the world.

Although many would have expected the three men to do well at the World Cup, not many would have expected them each to score twice or more in both of their opening games.

But for those brave few that did expect all three of them to do start their World Cup campaign with a bang, there was some serious money to be won.

Following Messi's hat-trick against Algeria, Mbappe's brace against Senegal and Haaland's two in the win over Iraq, Bet 365 offered punters odds of 120/1 for the three all to score two or more again.

Messi was the first to do so as Argentina put in another dominant performance to guarantee a spot in the knockouts with a 2-0 win over Austria, with a goal in the 38th and 95th minute.

Next up was Mbappe, who scored in the 14th minute before returning after the weather delay in the second half to net his second in 54th minute of France's 3-0 win over Iraq.

Finally Haaland stepped up in the 48th and 58th minute of Norway's 3-2 win over Senegal to ensure that any punter who backed the 120/1 received a massive pay day.

READ MORE: Why Senegal and Iraq haven't been eliminated from the World Cup despite being on zero points

A brief look in the comments of the post shows that plenty of fans won £511 by staking £5 on the bet, with some taking things further winning over £1000 thanks to the three World Cup stars.

And one fan has even taken things one step further, with the addition of Harry Kane to score two or more against Ghana potentially paying out £2,511 from a £5 stake.

Punters win huge pay days for backing Messi, Haaland and Mbappe

Of course, this bet only rewarded fans who backed the three World Cup stars to repeat their already impressive performances from the opening game in their second matches.

However, anyone brave enough to bet on Messi, Haaland and Mbappe to score two or more in both of their opening fixtures would have won significantly more.

As revealed by Fanatics Sportsbook, punters who placed $100 on each of them to score 2+ goals in their first World Cup match and then rolled it over to their next game would have been rewarded with a colossal $3.4million prize.