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We’d all like to win the lottery (though maybe not the ‘someone’s knocking at the door, someone’s ringing the bell‘ one, as there are some scary faces amongst them!) or an online or offline scratch cards win, but there must be something even more satisfying at feeling that you’ve earned it. Of course there are element of luck to betting, but there can also be an aspect of skill to it, in deciding the composition of a bet and likelihood of a result. So I like to think if I ever won big with an accumulator bet, it would at least in part be down to skill!

Of course though,  even with bets,  many or perhaps even a majority of punters ultimately take a ‘throw a dart at it’ approach and just pick a selection based on a name that they like, or a team that they or someone they know is rooting for. This was pretty much the case in November last year, when a 58 year old housewife placed a £1 12 football team accumulator bet on at William Hill and every single result came in.

The bored housewife had got her son to read out the fixtures for the day and picked teams she liked the sound of. Nothing more complicated than that, but with such a number of consecutive wins the rewards were great.

According to a William Hill spokeperson, “Apparently, the lady’s husband had been doing the £1 weekend acca since he was 18, so 40 years of practice on football punting. His wife started doing the same bet about six years ago, so she certainly had lady luck on her side as her hubby has never had a win anything like that. ‘It just goes to show if you can’t beat them join them and the payout in this case is absolutely fantastic.”

 

Below is the punter’s betting slip, and the bet in its entirety:

The Acca

Huddersfield to beat West Brom: 6/4 – 1-0 victory

Bournemouth to beat Newcastle: 5/2 – 1-0 victory

Burnley to beat Southampton: 4/1 – 1-0 victory

Brighton to beat Swansea: 15/8 – 1-0 victory

Sheff Wed to beat Aston Villa: 5/2 – 2-0 victory

Barnsley to beat Birmingham: 11/8 – 2-0 victory

Bolton to beat Norwich: 11/5 – 2-1 victory

Reading to beat Derby: 16/5 – 4-2 victory

Ipswich to beat Preston: 8/5 – 3-0 victory

Burton to beat Millwall: 10/3 1-0 victory

Nottingham Forest to beat QPR: 11/10 – 4-0 victory

Sheff Utd to beat Hull: 8/11 – 4-1 victory

 

Another day, another big winning accumulator. At this stage I’m beginning to think that everyone and the nan has tapped into latent fine tuned sports analysis skills! The latest big winner to be highlights here is hot off the press and involves a lucky punter’s football selections from the second round of the Carabao Cup.

The man in question staked just £10 on a seven event accumulator. The acca involved predicting that each of the seven selections would win ‘to nil’. The selections and corresponding scores are as follows:

 

 

Bayern Munich 4-0 Chicago Fire
Sheff Wed 0-2 Wolves
Hull 0-4 Derby
Fulham 2-0 Exeter
Brighton 0-1 Southampton
Bournemouth 3-0 MK Dons
Swansea 0-1 Crystal Palace

 

Predicting any football team to ‘win to nil’ of course has many of variables at play because  so much can happen over the course of a game. As it happens though, most of these results went rather precisely to plan, with the exception of the Brighton vs Southampton game where Brighton held out until the 88th minute.

So what did the winner pocket as a result of his £10 bet you ask? A cool £21,547.61 based on odds of around 2000-1 for this unlikely combo. Not a bad day’s work, and it just goes to show how profitable multiple bets can be with the right combinaton of skill and good fortune.

In the British Stallions EBF Fillies’ Nursery Handicap (2.20) at Leicester on Monday, Quiet Waters is on a retrieval mission after finishing last of 14 on her handicap debut at Newmarket earlier this month. However, she was fractious in the stalls and heavily eased by jockey Edward Greatrex once it became clear she wasn’t going to be involved in the finish; she’s better judged on her previous form, in novice median auction races, which suggested her opening handicap mark was fair enough.

In the Nelson Fillies’ Handicap (2.50), Point In Time failed to trouble the judge in three starts on synthetic surfaces as a juvenile but, switched to turf, has made steady progress this season, culminating with a win, in this grade, at Newmarket 17 days ago. The daughter of Champs Elysees has been raised 4lb for that effort, but wasn’t beaten far in a 0-85 fillies’ handicap over course and distance on her penultimate start and can continue on an upward curve.

In the Coalville Yellow Cab and Underwood Equine Handicap (3.20), Welliesinthewater rallied well in the closing stages to only be beaten a head and a neck in a similar contest, over course and distance, last month. The testing 7 furlongs at Leicester appears to play to his strengths and, with a 1lb rise in the weights unlikely to make much difference, he can finally strike for Paddy Mathers, who’s ridden him seven times without success.

Selections: Quiet Waters, Point In Time, Welliesinthewater, 1-point Win Trixie