I think almost every sports fan has bet an insignificant amount of money on a bet with astronomically high odds just for kicks. The chance that they might actually win probably never even enters their mind, and if it did, they might as well give all their possessions to the homeless because they will end up losing them anyway. Enter Mick Gibbs. Gibbs is nothing different from your average sports fan from Safford, England. Until one day he decided to make the ballsiest accumulator bet of all time. In the 2001 Champions League, Gibbs made an accumulator bet of thirty pence comprising a total of fifteen selections. That means that all his selections had to win their games for him to collect the prize. The odds on this ticket were 1-1,666,666. Normally when someone sees the devil’s number riddled twice on their betting ticket, the only sane thing to do would be to wrap a set of prayer beads around it and set the whole thing on fire while chanting hymns in Latin. Not so Gibbs however. He probably thought that it was a simple coincidence, placed his bet and relaxed to watch other people play the world’s favourite pastime. That is until fourteen of his fifteen selections won their respective games, leaving only the final game of Bayern vs Valencia to send Gibbs screaming towards the bank. And of course Bayern made it through with penalties, netting Gibbs 500,000.00 sterling. That is a 166666566.67% profit, which Gibbs presumably used to buy himself a new wardrobe after having soiled all his jeans during said penalties.
Betting on a game result is one thing. Us sports-fans can do this online (new guides to these are launching all the time) or at a ‘live’ Sportsbook. It puts a flavour to the game and gives you an added incentive to watch it, even if you nothing about and could care less about the sport in question (story of my life). Betting on a miracle shoot, that’s a different manner. It puts the distinct aroma of nuttiness around your persona whilst your friend will glance nervously about in case they spot the asylum truck coming to haul your ass to the closest rubber room. So say hello to Adrian ‘Steelnuts’ Hayward. Back in 2005 Adrian had a dream that then Liverpool’s Xabi Alonso made a goal from his own half of the pitch. As every rational person would do, Alonso headed out to his nearest bookie and placed a bet of 200 sterling that he would in fact score that goal during the season, presumably after eating a bowl of titanium bolts for breakfast. His bookkeeper simply stared at him as he collected what was probably the easiest money he ever made in his life, with odds being 125-1. While he was watching Liverpool-Luton with his family at his house he starting frantically yelling “shoot” as Luton’s keeper was off his line. And sure enough Xabi scored the goal from his side of the pitch taking advantage of an empty net. Reward? 250,000.00 sterling. Almost makes you angry for being alive, doesn’t it?
Sports games have a tendency to flip around at the last leg of the game. It’s not the first time that a team has managed to turn a losing score into an unbelievable comeback at the end of the game. As a result of that, odds shift around in mid game, allowing fans of the losing team to make some of their losses back on a bet. Such was the case for one lucky punter during the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations. Mali were losing 4-0 against Angola and there were sixteen minutes left on the clock. It was then someone placed a 5 sterling bet on Mali with odds about 1000-1 that they’d win, presumably after yelling “F*** THIS S***!”. Drunk fans don’t make this bet. Drunk fans that live in Mordor don’t make this kind of bet. Not this guy. And of course as luck would have it, the Mali offence was repossessed by their disembodied souls, and rained down four goals on the Angola defence, netting this insanely lucky fan a sum of 5000.00 sterling
The Ascot racecourse of 1996 featured famous jockey Frank Dettori. To put the next words into perception, Frank himself had been quoted of not having great faith that he would do well in these races, saying there was a slight chance he would win two of the seven races. Daren Yates has no such pessimistic views. A compulsive gambler with a failing carpentry business, he placed a bet on Frank that he would win all seven races with odds at 250,000 – 1. No moral person would accept such a bet, but considering he bet a paltry 100 dollars and that most bookies are soulless cyborgs, the bet was placed. To said bookie’s great disbelief and sorrow, Dettori won all his races which netted Mr Yates a winning sum of 860,000.00 dollars
This list has to have an honourable mention, as tracking down people who received insane amounts of money by throwing their own money out of the proverbial window can be a bit depressing. So let’s talk about 50Cent. Back in 2012 the get rich or die trying superstar won a million dollars by betting on his favourite football team, the New York Giants. After this win he doubled down by betting his newly earned million that they would win that year’s Superbowl. Nothing special so far, right? Well, his side-bet made with a twitter follower by the handle of MyBestAssets included a deal with the famous rapper that if his team lost. he had to upload a picture of his junk on twitter. If he won she promised to upload a picture of her boobs to twitter. The Giants went on to win the Superbowl and the world was gifted with yet another nude selfie. Thank you 50cent!