One unlucky punter has been denied a huge win of over £500,000 on a single accumulator but, thankfully, this was not by a begrudging bookie.
The gambler was actually denied this huge windfall by the whistle of Referee Kevin Friend!
The Premier League official denied the punter the huge windfall after blowing for full time just one second before a crucial goal went in.
A man from Oldham, who does not wish to be named, had put a wager on a series of unlikely scores in cup football matches this weekend including Leeds United to beat Tottenham 3-1.
Incredibly, all the results had come in except the match at Elland Road which seemed destined to finish agonisingly close at 2-1.
But in the dying seconds of injury time, with Spurs ‘keeper Brad Friedel up for a corner, Leeds cleared the ball and it was left to midfielder Rodolph Austin to pump it into an empty net from long range.
He duly took his shot, but just one second before the ball rolled across the line the referee signalled the end of the match.
The accumulator bet, which also included Oldham to beat Liverpool 3-2, Celtic to get knocked out of the cup by St Mirren 3-2 and Brentford’s 2-2 draw with Chelsea, would have netted the unlucky gambler £506,562 if the goal had gone in.
Not all has been lost however, as he still walked away with £17,055.80 for his ‘Lucky 15’ bet at Ladbrokes.
Alex Donohue, of Ladbrokes, said: ‘The referee has ruined our punter’s dream.
‘Seventeen grand is sweet enough but he was literally one second away from having his life changed forever.’
The Lucky 15 bet involved 15, 20p bets on four correct score predictions: four singles, six doubles, four trebles and an accumulator.
They were Brentford 2 Chelsea 2 at 18/1 , Leeds 3 Tottenham 1 (25/1), Oldham 3 Liverpool 2 (80/1), and St Mirren 3 Celtic 2 (50/1).
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The stoppage time was displayed as 4 minutes, and the referee blew at around 94:52, before the last kick, and about ten seconds before the ball crossed the line. Not “one second”, but ten seconds.
There were almost certainly some incidents in the other matches which went his way, and as someone posted on Youtube: “Not all the results had come in as St Mirren V Celtic was still in play and the Oldham v Liverpool game hadn’t kicked off. Only one result was confirmed and therefore he wouldn’t be expecting a huge pay out at that stage.”
Wow, the bookies must have breathed a sign of relief after that…