SteveWillDoIt gifted Mexico’s World Cup squad about $1 million in Rolexes after one winning bet. Weeks later, he was selling his own watch collection to cover a 2026 World Cup betting run that reportedly cost him close to $4 million. The SteveWillDoIt World Cup losses became one of the tournament’s strangest side stories — a highlight reel of huge stakes, a diplomatic mess with FIFA, and a very public unraveling.
KEY FACTS AT A GLANCE
- The bettor: SteveWillDoIt (Stephen Deleonardis), a high-stakes gambling YouTuber tied to the Full Send / NELK crew
- The event: The 2026 FIFA World Cup across the US, Canada and Mexico
- The damage: A net loss of roughly $3.9M–$4.4M, after losing 9 of 10 bets (per TotalProSports)
- The twist: He gifted Mexico’s squad 31 Rolexes (~$1M) — the team handed them back under FIFA gift rules and Hublot sponsor pressure
- The fallout: He said he was selling around $1 million of his own watches to cover the debt
The $2 million bet that started it all
SteveWillDoIt — real name Stephen Deleonardis — built a following on YouTube with oversized gambling stunts, and the 2026 World Cup gave him the perfect stage. His splashiest move came in the Round of 32, when he put $2 million on Mexico to beat Ecuador. Mexico delivered a 2-0 win, and the bet returned him a profit of about $1 million.
Rather than bank the winnings, he turned them into a grand gesture: 31 Rolex watches for the entire Mexican squad and its staff, a collection reported to be worth roughly $1 million, with individual pieces valued between $30,000 and $90,000. He explained the logic to the players in typically blunt fashion before the match.
“I live in Mexico, and I bet $2M on you guys tomorrow so everything is free.”
— SteveWillDoIt, to Mexico players before the Ecuador match
It was the high point. Everything after it moved in the wrong direction — and the sequence below shows just how quickly.
FIFA and Hublot force a U-turn on the Rolexes
The gift did not survive contact with the sport’s rulebook. FIFA’s Code of Ethics restricts players from accepting high-value gifts that could create a conflict of interest, with penalties that run to fines starting around 10,000 Swiss francs (about $12,500) and bans of up to two years. There was a commercial snag too: Mexico’s national team is sponsored by luxury watchmaker Hublot, so a locker room full of rival Rolexes was never going to sit well.
The Mexican Football Federation moved quickly. In its account, the players returned the watches “by mutual agreement,” noting that Deleonardis had provided them “on his own initiative.” For context on just how much money was riding on this tournament, see our breakdown of why the 2026 World Cup was the biggest betting event in history. Steve, for his part, was not thrilled about the reversal.
“Last time before the game I gave the entire Mexico team a Rolex. And I guess FIFA and Hublot got a little mad about that.”
— SteveWillDoIt, after the watches were returned
He added that he had planned to gift a watch to every player and their mothers before Mexico’s next match against England, but that FIFA and Hublot put a stop to it. That England fixture would end up mattering to his bankroll in a big way.
The knockout collapse: the bets that broke him
Once the knockout rounds arrived, the winning stopped. According to TotalProSports, Deleonardis placed ten bets during the tournament and lost nine of them. His biggest single loss came on the same team he had just celebrated: $1.6 million on Mexico to beat England, a wager that went down when England knocked El Tri out.
The rest of the card was a spread of long shots that never landed: $800,000 on Cristiano Ronaldo to score against Spain, $420,000 on the United States to beat Belgium, a $400,000 Argentina-Colombia parlay, and $250,000 on Norway to beat England. Combining multiple outcomes into one slip is exactly the kind of wager that magnifies both the payout and the risk — you can see how the math works with our parlay calculator, and our guide to reading betting odds explains how a $2 million stake returns roughly $1 million in profit.
| Bet | Stake | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Mexico to beat England | $1.6M | Lost |
| Ronaldo to score vs Spain | $800K | Lost |
| USA to beat Belgium | $420K | Lost |
| Argentina-Colombia parlay | $400K | Lost |
| Norway to beat England | $250K | Lost |
| Mexico to beat Ecuador | $2M | Won (~$1M profit) |
“We’re down $2,480,000”: the watch fire sale
By mid-July, Deleonardis was documenting the damage on camera. In one clip he flatly told viewers, “We’re down $2,480,000” — a mid-tournament snapshot that only grew as more bets fell. The final tally depends on who you ask: his own July 14 reveal put the losses at around $3.87 million, while TotalProSports reported a net figure closer to $4.37 million. Either way, the bettor who had just handed out a million dollars in Rolexes was suddenly deep in the red.
His solution carried an obvious irony. Having gifted 31 luxury watches to a soccer team weeks earlier, Deleonardis said he was now putting roughly $1 million of his own watch collection up for sale to cover the debt he had dug for himself.
Influencer gambling and the anatomy of chasing losses
Strip away the Rolexes and the run reads like a familiar pattern: an early win, a burst of confidence, and then a string of bigger bets aimed at winning it all back. Chasing losses that way is one of the most recognized warning signs of problem gambling, and it plays out no differently for a YouTuber with millions to burn than it does for anyone else. Readers who want support or want to set limits can start with our responsible gambling resources.
He was not the only one bruised by the tournament, either. Sportsbooks took their own hits when heavily backed favorites came through, as we covered in the DraftKings World Cup loss on the USMNT. The difference is that a book prices thousands of outcomes to stay solvent over time; a single bettor stacking seven-figure wagers on individual matches has no such cushion, as Deleonardis found out in real time.
FAQs
Reports put his net loss at roughly $3.9 million to $4.4 million. His own mid-July video cited about $3.87 million, while TotalProSports reported a figure near $4.37 million after he lost nine of ten bets.
FIFA’s Code of Ethics bars players from accepting high-value gifts that could create a conflict of interest, with penalties including fines and bans of up to two years. Mexico’s watch sponsor Hublot also objected, so the federation said the players returned the 31 Rolexes by mutual agreement.
His largest reported losses were $1.6 million on Mexico to beat England, $800,000 on Cristiano Ronaldo to score against Spain, $420,000 on the United States to beat Belgium, a $400,000 Argentina-Colombia parlay, and $250,000 on Norway to beat England.
He made a profit of about $1 million on a $2 million bet that Mexico would beat Ecuador in the Round of 32. Mexico won 2-0, and he used the winnings to buy the team 31 Rolexes.
According to his mid-July videos, yes. He said he was putting around $1 million of his own luxury watches up for sale to help cover the debt from his World Cup betting losses.
SteveWillDoIt is Stephen Deleonardis, a YouTuber known for high-stakes gambling and stunt videos, associated with the Full Send and NELK brands. He has built much of his audience around wagering large sums on camera.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- A roughly $4M hole — SteveWillDoIt’s World Cup losses landed between about $3.9M and $4.4M after nine of his ten bets lost.
- One big win, then the slide — a $2M bet on Mexico beating Ecuador returned ~$1M, but the knockout rounds erased it and far more.
- The Rolex boomerang — his $1M gift of 31 watches to Mexico’s squad was returned after FIFA and sponsor Hublot objected.
- Selling to cover the debt — he said he was liquidating around $1M of his own watch collection.
- A textbook cautionary tale — chasing losses with ever-bigger wagers is a classic problem-gambling warning sign.
Sources
- World Cup 2026: Mexico returns gift of Rolex watches to avoid violating FIFA rules — Yahoo Sports
- Mexico National Team Returns $1 Million in Gifted Rolexes to SteveWillDoIt — Complex
- World Cup team had to return $1M gift from YouTube star due to strict FIFA rule — The Mirror
- SteveWillDoIt Reveals How Many Millions He Lost During Brutal World Cup Betting Run — TotalProSports
- YouTuber SteveWillDoIt Lost Over $4 Million On The World Cup — TotalProSports
