Leicester City bet made by mistake nets firefighters £20,000 win
Two firefighters are celebrating a £20,000 win, after backing Leicester to win the Premier League - by mistake.
Jordan Wright, 23, spotted odds of 2,000/1 that he thought related to Leicester's first match of the season against Sunderland. Believing that bookie Betfred had made a mistake, he bet £5 and persuaded his friend Mitchell Baldock, 25, to do the same.
"I got Jordan to give betting on football a go and basically he misread the bookies' website," says Mitchell. "It was too good a opportunity so I got a fiver on as well. Everyone we told thought we were mad, but not anymore."
He says he's off to Las Vegas on holiday soon, and will now have plenty of spending money.
"Mitchell and Jordan are amongs the hundreds of Betfred customers who are set to be taking my money and ruining my holidays," says Betfred boss Fred Done.
"Along with their fire brigade chums, they might think this is funny, but you can rest assured that is not how I would describe their good fortune!"
Betfred isn't the only bookie to be facing big payouts after Leicester's extraordinary 3-1 win against Manchester City. While the odds tumbled as the season progressed, they started at 5,000/1 - the same as the odds offered on Elvis turning up alive, and twice as long as the odds on David Cameron becoming the manager of Aston Villa.
William Hill has lost £2.2 million after handing out £3.3 million in wins, while BetVictor's paying out over £1 million. Overall, Britain's bookmakers are expected to lose over £25 million - the biggest loss in British sporting history.
Some people are believed to have won as much as £100,000.
"There will have been wild celebrations up and down the country from Foxes fans and punters alike and despite losing a fair wedge of cash on Leicester their story this season has been fantastic, and we can't begrudge them this win," says spokesman Joe Crilly.
"It will also serve to galvanise interest next season as we expect fans of some of the Premier League's 'less fashionable' sides will think 16/17 will be their year."
