Do you even have any concept of betting? A prediction of a settlement is like predicting we all going to die one day. All those litigations thrown against him, all had incredible odds of winning, but he managed to come out ahead most times. Settlement in his favor, against all odds, by definition is winning a bet.
Just look at the evidence you and your mentor buddy presented pages after pages, and the sanctions the court had already levied against Dish, if there is a role reversal, or if for example DirecTV was put in his position, they would have paid near full asking price before the judge even raised his voice. If you want to know why I say so, you need to go back to read some of those earlier patent cases in the Eastern Texas court, the ones predating the TiVo case.
And I say so as a DirecTV sub too