Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Weymouth wagers win £1 million

Every now and again you hear a betting story that warms the cockles of your heart. Last weekend troubled Weymouth were set to entertain Rushden & Diamonds in the Blue Square Premiership. Late Friday it emerged the first team were to go on strike as no medical insurance was available. Weymouth fielded a teenage team which promptly lost 9-0, but their fans, obviously in the know, helped pull off one of the biggest betting stunts in non-league football history by betting Rushden & Diamonds and taking over £1 million from the layers. The team were duly given a standing ovation at the end.

Perhaps we should note the quotation made by Steve Palmer, deputy sports editor at the Racing Post: "Non-league football is one of the few sports where punters can get an edge on the bookmakers."

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

If the Wrexham fan tried this the bookies would be several pounds down!

Sandracer said...

Yes, the bookies lost about 30k apparently.

The rest was from the layers on the exchanges who got beaten up big time.

GeeDee said...

Thanks for the comment, sandracer, and for the mention on your site's blog list.

The Times reported a Coral spokesman saying they paid out in the region of £100,000 on the game.

Sandracer said...

Could well be old boy. Funnily enough it was a comment made by Coral on Talksport quoting less actual losses then, than they claim now.

Believing what the bookies have to say has never been easy.

A bit like Billhill posting £64m profits, 2 days or so after Rupert Adams saying they lose a fortune when old boys who reach 100 years old collect on these bets.

They stated that from thereonin, they'll still take bets from folk betting on when they might die, but will up the ante to 110 years old, instead of 100.

GeeDee said...

Marvellous post, Sandracer, cheered me up no end. After reading that, I'm half-tempted to pop down Bill Hill's and have a monkey on myself reaching 110; only another 58 years to go, but it makes more appeal than buying life insurance, as I'm constantly being badgered to do by life insurance companies. Insurance salesmen = glorified bookmakers ;-)