Retired Construction Worker Rings In 2020 By Winning $125,000 Grand Prize In PlaySugarHouse.com & BetRivers.com $500,000 PRO Football Pick'Em In Pennsylvania

This First-of-a-Kind Vegas Style Contest in Keystone State

News provided by

Jan 02, 2020, 09:00 ET

PITTSBURGH, Jan. 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- A retired construction worker and his wife are toasting the new year after winning the grand prize in the PlaySugarHouse.com and BetRivers.com $500,000 Pro Football Pick'em. Gary Heineman, of Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, won the guaranteed top prize of $125,000 for picking the most winners at the end of the season in the state's first ever online Vegas Style pick 'em contest. Although players could enter multiple entries, he did it with just one.

Heineman said he and his wife Roxanne started shaking when they got the call that they'd won the grand prize.

"We are just working class people and that's a lot of money," said the 57 year old. "We are so excited we just can't believe this. It's life changing."

When asked how they planned on spending the money and if it would help with Christmas bills Heineman said, "We actually decided not to exchange gifts for Christmas and instead save so we could take a vacation. Now we can do both and go anywhere we want! I'm planning on upgrading my wife's wedding ring as her Christmas present as she was key in our winning strategy."

Heineman said initially they just entered to have fun but they kept picking winners and soon were in eighth place. That's when they got serious and his wife started researching what the odds experts were saying and how the Vegas books and public were betting. They picked the favorites at first but as the season neared its end, they decided they needed to be different if they were going to win, and went for some long shots like the Jets, Bengals and Bears which they believe, in this season's crazy last games, made all the difference.

Each week of the NFL season, players picked the winners of Sunday and Monday pro football games and whoever picked the most winners at the end of the season collected the guaranteed $125,000 prize. Overall, 500 top pick winners were paid out cash winnings at the season's end, in addition to the top weekly score on each site earning $2,500 each week. The entrant with the most incorrect picks also received a $2,500 payout. In all, $500,000 was paid to entrants.

This was the first NFL season with legal online and mobile sports betting in the Keystone state. That's why Rush Street Interactive, the digital sports wagering and gaming supplier of Pennsylvania's first two online gaming sites, wanted to offer NFL fans a rewarding way to show off their pro football knowledge.

"This final week in the NFL has been one of the most exciting and entertaining that I can ever recall," said Mattias Stetz, C.O.O. of Rush Street Interactive, which operates PlaySugarHouse.com and BetRivers.com. "We created the $500,000 Pro Pick'em Football contest to make this season even more thrilling for football fans by giving them a fun way to get in on all the NFL sports betting action with chances to win huge cash prizes. Our players loved it—especially Gary Heineman!"

Not only will this win make the New Year a whole lot happier for Heineman, but it's also his birthday this week. Now that's cause for celebration and he plans to go to Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh to try his luck at the sportsbook there. He adds he and his wife already plan to sign up for next season's Pro Pick'em contest.

ABOUT RUSH STREET INTERACTIVE

Founded in 2012, Chicago-based Rush Street Interactive (RSI) launched its first betting site, PlaySugarHouse.com, in New Jersey in September 2016. The company subsequently made history by becoming the first operator in the United States to offer a fully integrated online sportsbook and casino. In addition, RSI was the first company to launch legal online sportsbooks both in Pennsylvania (PlaySugarHouse.com) and Indiana (BetRivers.com) as well as being the first to open a legal sportsbook in the state of New York (@ Rivers Casino in Schenectady). RSI also operates in-casino sportsbooks at Rivers Casinos in Pittsburgh & Philadelphia and most recently, at the historic French Lick Resort in Indiana. BetRivers.com is also the exclusive official sportsbook partner for the Philadelphia Flyers & Wells Fargo Center. RSI was the first US-based gaming operator to launch a legal and regulated online sportsbook in Latin America (Rushbet.co in Colombia). Rush Street Interactive is also the developer, supplier, and operator of a leading social casino & sportsbook platform currently deployed at affiliated land-based casinos and with other third-party partners of RSI. Rush Street Interactive was named "Mobile Operator of the Year" in North America at the EGR North America Awards 2019 and "American Operator of the Year" & "Casino Operator of the Year" at the American Gambling Awards in 2019. For more information, visit rushstreetinteractive.com