![\"Dan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/61907f1c1fc515a3174ebc6eb5ea68b29f1dd5cc.jpg\")
Camera IconDan Collado, Cricket Season Top Tipper winner, who has won $20,000 thanks to Maccas. Credit: Andrew Ritchie\/The West Australian<\/p>\nDan Collado left it late, but came up clutch when it mattered, tipping a perfect finals series to take home our $20,000 top prize thanks to McDonald\u2019s for The Game Cricket Tipping.<\/p>\n
Dan finished in a four-way tie on 34 points but took home the prize thanks to a superior margin on sixes.<\/p>\n
It came as a surprise to the diehard Perth Scorchers fan who was still revelling in the Scorchers\u2019 record sixth Big Bash title without realising his own achievement.<\/p>\n
\u201cI found out when I had a missed call on my phone, to say call you guys and then later on I checked my emails to see I\u2019d already won,\u201d he told The West Australian.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was over the moon, I couldn\u2019t believe it, I got to celebrate all over again.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the first time I\u2019ve won any tipping competition, and I\u2019ve been tipping for a fair while.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dan admitted he didn\u2019t consider himself much of a chance but said the decision to abandon the Melbourne Stars at the right time was key to his victory.<\/p>\n
Camera IconDan Collado, Cricket Season Top Tipper winner, who has won $20,000 thanks to Maccas. Credit: Andrew Ritchie\/The West Australian<\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t really following it. I got a few wrong here and there, but when finals came around, I got all four right, and that\u2019s when I really got in contention,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just tipping the Scorchers and Sixers mainly, and the Stars hit and there, but I managed to jump off just as they fell into a hole.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dan hopes his luck can translate into his AFL tipping, though he will be hoping his beloved North Melbourne can turn around their fortunes to help boost his score.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope the Kangas can do something. I still tip with my heart when it comes to them, but last year it was a bit iffy, but this season should be better.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully, my luck can continue, but we\u2019ll see how we go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Regardless of North Melbourne\u2019s fortunes, Dan and others can still be winners thanks to Thirsty Camel, with a $10,000 early bird prize up for grabs just for signing up for The Game.<\/p>\n
Join Footy Tipping at thegame.com.au by 22 February and you\u2019ll automatically enter the draw to win.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dan Collado left it late, but came up clutch when it mattered, tipping a perfect finals series to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":476572,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,22249,740,588,85,74713],"class_list":["post-476571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-big-bash-league","tag-cricket","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-the-game"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=476571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}