We spoke to a YouTuber who bet $15,000 on Logan Paul winning his boxing match with KSI
- Some fans paid hundreds of pounds for VIP tickets to the KSI vs Logan Paul boxing match in Manchester, UK, on Saturday night.
- One fan, Adam O'Brien, bet $15,000 in cryptocurrency on Logan Paul winning the fight.
- The fight ended in the draw - but luckily O'Brien got his money back.
- KSI and Logan Paul will fight a rematch in the US next year.
Millions of people watched KSI and Logan Paul duke it out in a boxing ring on Saturday night, in a landmark for YouTube and its impact on culture.
There were probably few people with as much riding on the outcome as Adam O'Brien, a 26-year-old Canadian YouTuber who, along with his wife, 24-year-old Kristina O'Brien, coughed up the best part of £1,000 ($1,200) for two VIP tickets to the fight.
Adam O'Brien also bet $15,000 on Logan Paul to win.
Business Insider met the O'Briens at the weigh-in ahead of the fight, which was held in a packed room at the Hotel Football in Manchester on Friday afternoon.
The event was open only to media and VIP ticket-holders, who had paid several hundred pounds more than the average ticket price for ringside seats and behind-the-scenes access to the YouTube stars. KSI, Logan Paul, and their entourage were all weighed over several testosterone-fuelled hours of bravado and insults.
Adam O'Brien, filming in the audience for his own YouTube channel, told Business Insider that he had become a Logan Paul fan when he was "couch-ridden" after breaking his leg a few years ago.
"I couldn't move for a few months, so I went down the YouTube rabbit hole. That's when [Logan Paul] exploded, so that's how I found him," he said.
Wife Kristina was initially sceptical about Logan Paul and his YouTube channel but came to find him "pretty entertaining."
Part of the reason the couple paid so much for tickets and flights, her husband added, was to boost his own YouTube channel. Since posting about Logan Paul and KSI on his own channel, O'Brien said he had earned "hundreds more" in advertising revenue because of the increased views.
"I definitely think that it's a business opportunity in that sense of gaining follows, lots of people have commented on my videos... It's a good way to get your name out there," he said.
In one of those videos, O'Brien shows himself making the $15,000 bet on Logan Paul through online betting site Bodog.
"I own a bitcoin brokerage... I like bitcoin, so I was able to use bitcoin on Bodog," he told Business Insider.
Asked if he was at risk of losing his house, he said: "Oh yeah, we're not going to hungry. We should be fine. I love sports gambling, but I don't gamble what I can't lose."
The fight actually ended in a draw, suggesting that $15,000 went up in smoke. Happily, in an update to his channel, O'Brien said he got a refund because Bodog didn't offer a draw option.
He'll have the chance to bet again a little closer to home, when KSI and Logan Paul fight a rematch in the US in February next year.