Photo: @fishboyjim
Before Alex Ovechkin hit the the jackpot on the ice Sunday, he traveled to a McLean, Virginia, 7-11 to hit the jackpot off of it. Via RMNB reader @spooner_amanda, WUSA9 reported that Ovechkin bought Powerball tickets on Saturday to try and win its $800 million prize.
Ovi didn’t win, but if he enters again, he will try for an estimated $1.4 billion jackpot Wednesday. It’s the largest prize in US lottery history. The odds of winning are 1 in 292.2 million.
According to USA Today, Ovechkin’s chances are slim.
Roughly speaking, the chances of picking the right combination of numbers is like flipping a coin and getting heads 28 times in a row, according to Jeffrey Miecznikowski, an associate professor of biostatistics at the University at Buffalo in New York.
“It’s very unlikely,” said Miecznikowski, who doesn’t play Powerball himself.
The odds of winning are so small that it’s hard to conceptualize it. A person is more likely to get struck by lightning or bitten by a shark, but Miecznikowski says most people don’t know someone personally who has had either of those things happen.
Why is the Russian machine even buying lotto tickets in the first place? He’s in the eighth year of a 13-year, $124 million contract. In total, Ovechkin will have made $135,502,600 in total salary (including his entry level contract) by 2021. And don’t forget about his endorsement deals with Nike, Bauer, Gillette, Hair Cuttery, Coke, and Energizer, as well as his Russian hockey league contracts.
If Ovechkin were to win Powerball Wednesday, it would multiply the number in his bank account approximately nine times.
Here’s what he could pay for:
656.5 $200 million yachts- Enough monster chicken nachos to fill up all of Verizon Center 14.5 times*
- A burrito for every person who lives in Texas, Florida, and New York
- Every fine levied against every NHL player in the last decade and still have 1.4 billion dollars left over
- Buy every NHL hockey player ever 5,442 dozen peanut butter cup doughnuts from Jeff Halpern’s Astro Doughnuts
If Ovechkin won the lottery, would he retire from the NHL and go live on a private island somewhere? Would he buy the Capitals from Ted Leonsis, name himself player-coach-general-manager, and skate every shift except the PK?
The possibilities are endless.
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