What is James Holzhauer's Net Worth?
James Holzhauer is a professional sports gambler and a famous game show contestant who has a net worth of $3 million. James Holzhauer is best known for becoming one of the highest-earning game show contestants of all time after winning 32 straight rounds of the American game show "Jeopardy" in 2019. His "Jeopardy" winnings amounted to $2.4 million and he became known publicly as "Jeopardy James." With several additonal Jeopardy wins, his earnings total topped $3.4 million.
Early Years
James Holzhauer was born on August 6, 1984 in Naperville, Illinois, the son of German immigrant Juergen Holzhauer, a chemical engineer. He attended Naperville North High School, a public school in Chicago. While he passed tests with flying colors, he often skipped class and failed to complete homework assignments, choosing instead to focus on studying sports statistics. Holzhauer was a member of The Worldwide Youth in Science and Engineering Team – a program run by the Grainger College of Engineering which offered STEM classes to pre-college students. The team won the state competition and Holzhauer took first place in physics and second place in math. He was also a member of a card club which got together several times a week to practice trick-taking games and gamble on rounds of poker.
Holzhauer received a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2005. In 2008, he relocated to Las Vegas to engage in professional sports betting.
(Photo by David Becker/Getty Images)
Professional Gambling & Jeopardy Run
James Holzhauer appeared on the American game show "The Chase" on September 2, 2014 where he set records for the number of correct answers he provided. On May 22, 2015, he appeared on the American game show "500 Questions" but failed to earn any winnings.
In 2019, Holzhauer participated in the World Series of Poker tournaments held at Paradise, Nevada. He finished 454th out of approximately 1,800 contestants.
Holzhauer first appeared on "Jeopardy" on April 4, 2019, winning $43,680, the largest single-game amount ever won on the show. Holzhauer broke his own record on April 17 when he won a single-game total of $131,127. By utilizing very specific strategies and numerical methodologies, Holzhauer won more than $100,000 during a single episode on six occasions.
Holzhauer's history-making winning streak on the show ended on June 3, 2019 when he was defeated by contestant Emma Boettcher.
"Jeopardy's" Nielsen ratings rose significantly during Holzhauer's winning streak and the episode in which he lost was watched by over 14 million people.
Holzhauer had enjoyed watching "Jeopardy" as a young man in the company of his Japanese grandmother, who was not fluent in the English language. He promised her that one day he would become a contestant on the show. During his April 17, 2019 episode, Holzhauer wrote "This is for you granny" on the final answer board. When the show's host Alex Trebek asked if she was still alive, Holzhauer said no, kissed his hand and pointed to the sky.
Holzhauer's winning streak on "Jeopardy" lasted for 33 episodes, with his total winnings amounting to $2,464,216. Only one contestant in "Jeopardy" history had won more money that Holzhauer – Ken Jennings, who became the host of the show after Trebek's death, won $2,520,700 in 2004.
Holzhauer later added to his winnings by scoring the $250,000 prize in the show's Tournament of Champions, the $250,000 runner-up prize in the show's Greatest of All Time Tournament and the $500,000 grand prize in the Masters Tournament, bringing the total amount of money he'd won on "Jeopardy" to $3,464,216.
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Philanthropy
On April 7, 2019, James Holzhauer donated $10,000 to the non-profit Las Vegas organization Project 150, which provides support and services to homeless, displaced and disadvantaged high school students so that they may remain in school, graduate and build bright futures. The following month, he was awarded a key to the Las Vegas Strip in celebration of his success on "Jeopardy" as well as in gratitude for his donations to area non-profit organizations. That same year, he donated $1,109.14, reflecting the birthdate of his daughter, to the Naperville Pancreatic Cancer Reach Walk, in honor of the late "Jeopardy" host Alex Trebek who succumbed to the effects of pancreatic cancer on November 8, 2020.
At the first-ever "Jeopardy! Honors" event held on September 29, 2022, James and his wife received the Alex Trebek Person of the Year Award from Alex's widow, in gratitude for their large financial contributions to Project 150.
Personal Life
James Holzhauer married Melissa Sassin, a tutor, on September 8, 2012. Melissa was no stranger to the game show circuit, having won $28,800 on the American television game show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" in 2014. The couple has a daughter named Natasha.
