When Raidel Brito was 14, his mom confronted him and asked if he was dealing drugs. 

The year was 2007 and she had been receiving checks in the mail for hundreds of dollars with no idea why. Her son, she suspected, was up to something illicit. 

But when she asked Brito where the money was coming from, he gave her an answer she wasn't expecting: he was playing the popular football video game Madden. 

"I had to explain to her, 'No, I'm playing a video game and I'm really good,'" he told CNBC Make It. 

Brito, who competed under the name "Joke," had used his mom's credit card to load $25 into an account on GamerSaloon, a website where he could bet on his matches against other Madden players. He was so skilled, even at 14, that he built his initial deposit into a balance worth "a few thousand dollars." 

But because he wasn't an adult, he had made the account under his mom's name. That meant that cashing out resulted in checks being sent to her and setting off alarm bells, if only temporarily.

"Once she got over the fact that I wasn't selling drugs, she was super supportive of it," he said. "She couldn't believe it."

Her support, and willingness to let him practice and compete for hours on end, led to Brito becoming one of the highest-earning competitive players in the game's history.

Getting to the top of the game

For the first few years, Brito ran a modest operation. The teen mostly spent his time playing opponents online in small-stakes matchups, betting $50 or $100 per game. Occasionally, he would enlist his older brother to drive him to a weekend tournament in his native New Jersey, where he'd try his best to take home a $1,000 grand prize. 

"I remember I bought my own Nextel phone," he said. "I had enough money for school, to buy snacks and stuff."

After high school, Brito was able to enter bigger tournaments with higher prizes. He estimates that he spent eight to 12 hours per day playing and practicing. 

"Basically, my life was Madden," he said. "All the other time I spent not playing the game, I was either playing basketball with my real friends or talking to my Madden friends and watching them play." 

Though he got a job after school working as a loss prevention supervisor at a company that stocked and shipped high-end clothing brands, the 12-hour shifts and low pay were less than ideal. When Electronic Arts announced the first official Madden NFL Club Championship in 2017, Brito decided to quit his job and try to pursue competitive gaming full time.

Brito estimates that he earned roughly $60,000 his first year playing Madden, between tournament winnings, online play and a $1,000 per month sponsorship deal he landed with an eSports team. 

"That was double what I was making at my actual job, so I said, 'OK, I'm just gonna do this now,'" he said.

His gamble paid off handsomely, landing him in the top-10 highest-earning Madden pros ever with his career earnings of $314,525, according to the official Madden Championship Series standings — including the $65,000 grand prize at the first Madden Bowl championship in 2020.

The money didn't stop there. Brito landed more lucrative eSports sponsorships, and at his peak says he was earning $5,000 per month from the team XSET.

He also operated a training website between 2020 and 2023 that sold tutorials on how to play Madden at a high level — a venture he says earned him roughly $100,000 in income annually. (CNBC Make It was unable to independently confirm these figures.)

But even though Brito estimates that Madden helped him make well over $1 million, he eventually found himself ready to walk away from his favorite game.

Hanging up his controller

When he was on top, Brito loved Madden. But as eSports became more mainstream and top-level rivals proliferated, he found the demands on his increasingly limited time becoming more onerous.

"At first, it was fun. I loved being a Madden player. I was doing something I loved. I was barely losing. The game was great," he said. "Eventually it started getting tougher. I didn't enjoy playing anymore because suddenly it was a job and I had to be [a certain level] to be able to make money." 

Brito's responsibilities had also grown beyond just playing the game. Running his website meant that free time, which used to be spent away from the game, was now spent making videos teaching people how to play it. And his sponsor responsibilities meant that when he wasn't competing or working on his site, he was positing on social media and doing Twitch streams for his team.

"As I made more money in Madden, I had more responsibilities in Madden," he said. "That's when it wasn't fun anymore." 

But ultimately, what ended his competitive Madden career was life getting in the way. In his late 20s, he found himself struggling to spend the necessary eight-plus hours each day practicing in order to "even have a chance" against his teenage opponents at competitions. 

He remembers the last tournament game he lost, describing himself as having played "a pathetic game." 

"I remember losing that game and thinking, 'OK, I'm just not as good as these people anymore and I don't have enough time to put into the game to be one of the best players in the world,'" he said.

Brito wasn't upset about moving on, however. After pouring thousands upon thousands of hours into the game, he was ready to call it quits in 2023 and spend his time focused on his next venture: a subscription sports betting community called Beat the Books.

These days, he says he is able to make more than he did as a player while also maintaining a better quality of life.

In fact, after retiring from Madden, Brito hasn't gone back to video games at all. He recently gave his PlayStation 5 away to his nephew and his Xbox One to his best friend. 

"Once I retired, I just never turned on any of my systems again," he said.

Want to be more successful and confident with your money? Take CNBC Make It's new online course. Our expert instructors will help you master your money and discover practical strategies to boost your savings, reduce debt and grow your wealth — in a way that works best for you. Enroll in "Achieve Financial Wellness: Be Happier, Wealthier & More Financially Secure" to start your journey to financial freedom today! Get a 30% discount with the coupon code EARLYBIRD until September 2, 2024.

Plus, sign up for CNBC Make It's newsletter to get tips and tricks for success at work, with money and in life.