Football is the world’s most popular sport, and there are millions and millions of people around the world who love betting on it to add some more entertainment. There is one type of bet that is extremely popular among football bettors and that is the accumulator – there is probably not a football fan out there who has not dreamt about winning a large sum of money on a football accy. Although accumulators are hard to get right since you must get all your selections right, massive wins do happen, and below we are going to take a look at some of the biggest.
Betting on football
Obviously, before you are able to place a football accumulator, you will need to have an account with a bookmaker first. However, there are now so many out there, that it can often be tricky to find the best bookie to suit all of your gambling needs. Thankfully, there are plenty of sportsbook comparisons sites that are extremely useful when it is time for you to choose a bookmaker, especially for those doing some football betting in the UK. If you follow the link that we have just given you, you will be transported to what we feel is a quality bookmaker comparison site.
They have a team of experts that know everything they need to know about the sports betting world. When they say that an online betting site is a great one, we have no reason at all to doubt them. We recommend that you take a look at their detailed reviews as these helped us find the best bookies for us, and we are sure they will help you too.
Biggest accumulator wins in football
Now that you know where to go to find the best bookies to sign up with, we shall now take a look at some of the biggest accumulator wins in football betting history. Hopefully, Lady Luck will be on your side and you will be on one such list in the future.
£100 on odds of 6,542/1 for £650,000 winnings
Even if you take eight short odds and stick them all into one eight-fold accumulator, your chances of being a winner decrease quite dramatically. Now, just imagine if these eight fixtures were added to a betting slip when the matches had already started, and all eight teams are losing. Your chances of winning will get even slimmer, right? Well, now add the fact that each game had just 20 minutes left, and you get hefty odds of 6.542/1. Who would not want to stick £100 on that? Well, one brave guy did, and it paid off handsomely for him and each result came in. He had to wait for Coventry to score the winner in injury time, but we feel 20 minutes of stress is well worth a £650,000 payout.
80p on odds of 683,738 for £585,000
This winner is from Malta and he had a rule that he would only bet €1 per bet, which is about 80p in Sterling. William Hill was the bookmaker that had to pay out this whopping bet. It was 2011, and the form book was on point as all the favourites were emerging victorious, which is never great news for bookies. However, it soon got a lot worse for William Hill. This Maltese man decided to play a 19-fold accumulator, and he went into the final game needing Liverpool to beat Chelsea to win himself half a million. Liverpool, who were the underdogs, took the lead thanks to Maxi Rodriguez and then Daniel Sturridge equalised for the Blues. It looked like the game was heading for a draw, but Glen Johnson popped up with just three minutes left to change this man’s life. We do not know about you, but we probably would have been tempted to cash out before the final match even started.
30p on odds of 1.6m/1 for £500,000
Rather than choosing winners, this unknown punter decided to predict tournament winners at the start of the 2000/01 season. He predicted the outcome of 9 football tournaments – the five tiers of English football, the Champions League, and then three in Scotland. He then decided to add County Cricket and Rugby Union winners to boost his odds to a staggering 1.6 million. He decided to slap just the 30 pence on it, for a potential return of £500k. All his results came in towards the end of their respective seasons, and all he needed was for Bayern Munich to beat Valencia in the Champions League Final. Things got off to a bad start when Valencia took the lead with just 3 minutes on the clock. However, just after half-time, Bayern were level, and this is how it remained all the way until the end of Extra Time. Oliver Kahn was at his best and helped Bayern win the trophy this punter his massive bet. Can you imagine how fast his heart must have been beating during that penalty shootout?
£2.50 on odds of 108,800/1 for £272,000
Let us go back in time to the start of 2011. Inter Milan had won the Champions League, but Barcelona were seen by many as the world’s best team. By the end of the season, this was not in doubt as Barcelona took bronze, silver, and gold in the Ballon d’Or votes, and also completely outclassed Manchester United in the final of the Champions League. However, on the 5th of January that year, one guy had bet on Athletic Bilbao to draw against Barcelona in the Copa Del Rey. This was part of a 9-match accumulator and was the game that had him watching through his fingers. Barcelona took the lead with not long to go, and out bettor probably thought his hope of winning a large sum of money had gone up in smoke. However, Fernando Llorente scored an equaliser in the 85th minute, and Ladbrokes were forced to hand over 272k, which was a record win for an accy at the time.
£50 on odds of 3,700/1 for £185,000
When you chuck £50 on 20 match results, you are probably already thinking to yourself that you will not see your stake again. However, you still live in hope that the stars will align for you. In 2019, one sports bettor took a risk and placed a 20-team accy, His selections included teams such as Norwich, Newcastle, Lincoln, Inverness, Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Bayern Munich. It was the latter who nearly cost him a lot of money, but they eventually managed to beat Hertha Berlin 1-0. Lady Luck was definitely smiling upon him that day, and it was yet another large sum of money that William Hill had to cough up.