International Football News, National Soccer Teams, Previews International football in bite-size pieces
Related Articles
Making money out of something you love is not easy, this is particularly true if the thing you love is football. Most of us never had and aren’t about to develop the skills and discipline to become a top football player and earn the big bucks like the Rooneys or Messis of this world. You’re not going either to take your fantasy football cleverness and turn it into a management position with an astronomical salary at Real Madrid or Arsenal.
For most of us the only way to make money through football is to see something the bookies don’t think is possible and stick some money on it. Therefore, inspired by bgo’s blog post on the biggest bets in international football, here are some lucky people who made great decisions with their punts.
Lucky Leicester City Punter
A very recent one to start us off. Most people will be aware that 2021 was a good year for the Leicester club. It’s easy to forget what a phenomenal and unexpected win this was and you can re-live the excitement by watching the video below. For one lucky Foxes fan, it was extra special as he’d placed just £100 on Leicester City winning the Premier League back in October when the odds were 200-1. Many people claimed to have won big on the Leicester triumph, including Tom Hanks, but this is one of the few confirmed large payouts and this lucky punter made the choice to remain anonymous.
The 9-Way Accumulator
The bgo blog post has some amazing accumulator winners, but this one is worthy of a mention, simply due to the unexpected results that were required. It would have been a miserable week at one bookmaker’s office when one lucky punter saw their £2.50 stake on a 9-way accumulator turn into £272,529.60. The 9 results required included Blackburn beating Liverpool, Barcelona drawing at Athletic Bilbao and Wolves beating Chelsea. Must have had a crystal ball for that one!
The Embarrassing Ink
Not all bets need to come with a monetary value, some things are worth more than money. When Manchester United fan Paul Madden got tired of listening to his friend and Manchester City supporter Rodney Ward talk about how the Blues would finish top of the Premier League in the 2010-11 season, he made him put his money where his mouth is. The Red Devils went on to be champions that season and it was all the sweeter for Paul, as his friend and life-long City fan had to honour the bet and get a Manchester United tattoo on his right pec.
Biting Bet
This one is not impressive in terms of the money won, but ranks as one of the biggest bets as it’s so out of the ordinary. A Norwegian man won the equivalent of around £2,500 for having a poor opinion of Luis Suarez. The bet was made with the Norwegian gambling website Betsson, which offered odds of 175-1 that Luis Suarez would bite someone at the 2014 World Cup. Suarez did exactly that and though Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini did received an apology, it was a shocking event in sports, unless of course you were that one lucky Norwegian laughing all the way to the bank.
