The coronavirus pandemic’s devastating impact on American travel has made a winner of Apollo Global Management Inc.’s wager that rental-car company Hertz Global Holdings Inc. would default on its debt, people familiar with the matter said.

The private-equity firm, known for making bets on distressed companies, acquired a sizable position in insurance contracts, called credit default swaps, on Hertz’s corporate debt. Such contracts provide holders with protection against defaults when companies run into financial difficulty.