Man lands £170,000 win from £1 bet

A Cambridgeshire man has won nearly £170,000 from a single £1 bet.

Just a week after setting up his first bookmaker's account, the man, who wishes to remain anonymous, placed a £1 10-team accumulator bet last Saturday. It was only the eighth bet he'd made.

The 33-year-old then went out with his family: "It wasn't until I got back home from the park that I checked my account and saw how much I had won," he says.

It was a winning goal in the 101st minute against Chesterfield by Leyton Orient's Dean Cox that finally scored the man his big win.

The man set up the account with the intention of making a couple of £1 bets every so often and placing any winnings into a savings account for his five-month-old son.

"We will certainly be giving him a large chunk towards his future, but we also plan to buy a house with some of the winnings as well," he says.

According to the Cambridge News, William Hill has calculated the odds against his win as 169,923 to one, and says they're the second-biggest in the company's history.

"A few years ago, we had a Maltese punter who turned €1 into over €500,000 and this guy, with his incredible win, has moved into second place on our list of biggest ever football winners," a spokesman told the paper. He beat odds of 683,738 to one.

Just last week, though, Southampton man Dean Clay took home almost £93,000, after betting just £2 on the results of 14 matches. And two years ago, a man netted an incredible £209,731, through a series of 1p bets that totalled less than £16.

However, it's worth remembering that the vast majority of punters lose their stake - so punters should never bet more than they can afford.

"Gambling companies provide fun and entertainment for huge numbers of people," says Ron Finlay, chief executive of independent gambling watchdog Senet Group.

"But if you're spending more than you can afford, it can lead to stress, anger, guilt and other problems. When gambling stops feeling like fun, it's time to call it quits."

The ten lucky bets
1 Bristol City 1-3 Sheffield United - Odds on Sheffield United: 23-10
2 Chesterfield 2-3 Leyton Orient - Odds on Leyton Orient: 5-2
3 Crawley 5-1 Barnsley - Odds on Crawley: 21-10
4 Crewe 2-0 Fleetwood - Odds on Crewe: 21-10
5 Doncaster 3-0 Yeovil - Odds on Doncaster: Evens
6 Gillingham 4-2 MK Dons - Odds on Gillingham: 7-2
7 Oldham 0-1 Colchester - Odds on Colchester: 7-2
8 Peterborough 2-1 Rochdale - Odds on Peterborough: 7-5
9 Scunthorpe 3-1 Swindon - Odds on Scunthorpe: 11-4
10 Walsall 0-1 Port Vale - Odds on Port Vale: 16-5

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