Ever been to the bookies and seen odds released as high as 2,000,000/1 and decided to take a punt on it? No, us neither. But there are some crazy people out there willing to put their hard-earned cash down on what are, frankly, some of the weirdest odds William Hill has ever released.
Check out the top 5 weirdest ones and prepare to be amazed by the inventinveness of William Hill and the sheer gumption of the punters out there.
1# Crying England players earning money for footie fans everywhere
It’s difficult to imagine one of our football players breaking down into tears on camera as a reason for celebration, but if you had placed £50 on the odds of Paul Gascoigne getting emotional back in 1990, you would have come up trumps with £225 to take home based on William Hill’s 7/2 odds during the 2010 World Cup.
There was only one catch: the tears had to be caught on camera. No photo evidence, no money.
Feeling nostalgic? Watch this video to reflect on the moment the England midfielder’s foul brought him to tears:
2# Roger Federer’s Wimbledon wins
Betting on Roger Federer to win seven Wimbledon titles by 2019 doesn’t seem so weird when he has a healthy 17 to his name right now, but it wasn’t quite such a safe bet back in 2003 when Nick Newlife made the wager.
William Hill gave him long odds of 66/1 which the daring punter placed a whopping £1,520 on, earning him a huge £101,840. The only snag? Sadly Mr Newlife died before his bet was realised, but his winnings were donated to Oxfam.
3# Could the collapse of the Euro be a good thing?
Forget football and horse racing, bets on the downfall of the one of the world’s biggest currencies is the new hot property. William Hill released odds of 4/1 on the collapse of the Euro before the end of the Euro 2012 Football tournament.
Unfortunately for the Euro sceptics out there, the currency is still live and kicking (well, just) but one thing it did teach us was that politicians look to the bookies for their political forecasts.
4# The idea of man on the moon was once a weird one
Man on the moon? Normal, standard, banal even. At least, it’s not exactly headline news. But cast your mind back to the days when such a thing was the subject of fantasy and science fiction, to the 1970s when William Hill giving David Threlfall odds of 1,000/1 seemed reasonable, if not weird.
Lo and behold, the risky punter was rewarded with a £10,000 return on his bet of a grand when Neil Armstrong made his dreams come true in 1969, just in the nick of time.
However, clearly not all risks pay off as this bettor sadly ended up killing himself in the sports car he treated himself to with the winnings.
5# It’s only true love if you’re willing to bet on it
Student Chris Brooker gave new meaning to being in a committed relationship when he was willing to put a mighty £100 behind his claim that he and his university girlfriend would still be together by the end of their university studies.
William Hill gave him odds of 6/1 on this, begging the question: how do they measure the likelihood of a break up? Weird is the word.
This is a story with a happy ending. Brooker and girlfriend made it and the canny student left university with a £700 reward and, oh, a girlfriend. And they lived happily ever after, or so we like to believe.
