Betting is a game of chance, and some winners experience significant wins for small bets. Imagine a gambler winning 500,000 on a 30p bet? That is crazy, but it is something that has happened in reality. Some of the biggest winnings in betting history come from small bets and impossible bets. Betting wins come from horse racing, football matches, cricket, casino games, and even golf matches. Sports and horse racing are among the games that have made fans a significant amount of money.
This article includes some crazy betting wins worldwide, from people who place millions in bets to punters who bet pence. The winners below won against incredible odds that no one would have predicted the outcome. Some of the gamblers are famous and wealthy individuals. Check out some of the crazy betting wins.
1.Mick Gibbs – £500,000
Gibbs is a man lucky enough to win big twice. The first time was when he placed a bet on a nine-game accelerator and won £157,000. That was a neat sum for a roofer who spent a small amount and won big. Two years after the first win, Gibbs bought a 30 pence ticket and placed accurate predictions for 15 football games. The deciding match was between Bayern Munich and Valencia. Gibbs ended up winning £500,000 back in 2001, and the odds of the game were 1.6m to one. Overall, that was a significant win for a 30p bet.
2.Fred Craggs – £1m
Fred is among the winners who didn’t even know that his ticket won big time for a while. The 60-year-old man was a fertilizer salesman who made a bet of 50 pence in a horse race. He placed the bet on an eight-fold accumulator, and he won seven figures from a stake equivalent to less than a dollar. He realized he won when he went to his booker to place another bet after some time. His actual winnings were £1m, but he could have made £1.4 if only he’d left the stake without a limit. Overall, the winnings transformed Craggs life, and it was a real story of how a man went from rags to riches.
3.Darren Yates – £550,000
Darren Yates did what most people considered it hard to accomplish in the betting world. He made history in 1996 when he made seven winning bets for horse races. Yates was always was a betting person but winning seven races in one day is uncommon. He won £550,000 from a bet of £62, which is impressive. The horse he bet on was known as Frankie Dettori, and the odds of the horse winning were 25,000 to one. Frankie won all races and made Yates a rich man. The impressive win at Ascot races is famous in the racing circles and has a nickname of “magnificent seven.”
4.Floyd Mayweather – $6.49m
Floyd Mayweather is a boxing champion who has a lot of money from his boxing career. He is also an avid gambler and loves to place big bets often. One of those bets saw him walk away with an equivalent of £6.4 from a single bet. He put an original bet worth $5.9m in 2013, but he is a wealthy man to afford to place such a large stake. Mayweather is known to place bets ranging from $50,000 to $100,000 under ‘normal’ circumstances.
Mayweather predicted that the Miami Heat would beat Indiana Pacers by a seven-point spread. Miami Heat went on to win by 23 points. There is a debate about the actual value that Mayweather won that night. There weren’t many people around when the bet was made. It’s not the first time that Mayweather has walked away with a large sum after a game. In 2014, he bet $720,000 on Indianapolis Colts against Jacksonville Jaguars. He won 1.4million at the end of the game when the Colts won.
5.Billy Walters – $3.5m
Billy Walters is a seasoned gambler and has made some bets that have landed him in trouble with the authorities after making big wins. Walters has been gambling for over 30 years and accumulated a lot of wealth from placing winning bets. Some of the stakes were in tunes of millions, and some had more than the average returns. One of the biggest bet that Billy Walters made was betting on New Orleans Saint to beat the Colts in the 2011 Super Bowl XLIV.
New Orleans Saints beat the Colts, and Walters made a cool $3.5m from that bet. It is common knowledge that Walters said in 2011 that he could make over $50 million in winnings on a good year. However, in 2017, Walters was charged for insider trading and $43 million after trading in Dean Foods company shares. Phil Mickelson had a $2 million gambling from Walters, and he was in charge of dealing with the company shares. Walters got a sentence of 5yrs in prison and a fine of 10 million dollars. The lesson of the story is to follow the betting guidelines and the law.
6.Dave Oancea – £2.5m
Sometimes gamblers see potential where others only see failure and losses. Dave Oancea was sure that the Kansas City Royals would win the 2015 World Series Championships. Kansas City Royals had already won seven games, but the odds of the team winning the world series was 30-1. Oancea was willing to bet $140,000 on the team, but not a single casino would take that single bet because of the potential liability. He opted to break down the sum into 15 bets across several casinos in Las Vegas. It was a clever strategy, and he was likely to lose all his money because the odds weren’t in his favour.
However, he made $2.5 million cumulatively from all his bets when the Kansas City Royals won against the New York Mets. It was a huge risk that paid handsomely to the seasoned gambler. It was worth all the hard work of going to 15 casinos to place his bets.
7.Steve Whiteley – £1.5m
Horse race betting is a sport that has created instant millionaires in a day, and Steve Whiteley is one. At 60-years old, Whiteley was a heating engineer who decided to go and watch races in 2011. On that fateful day, he had a free ticket to the races, and he placed a bet of £2 against the six would be winners of the races. It was a historical moment since one of the horses that won that day experienced a losing streak. There was a jackpot accumulating for more than a week winnings, and most seasoned gamblers were hoping to win it. Steve Whiteley went home with £1.5 million from a £2 bet. What are the odds?
8.Mike Futter – £800,000
Mike Futter broke one of the rules that gamblers follow in races, and he won big time because of it. In 2003, Monty Pass was Futter’s racing horse, and he had faith to bet on his horse. Most gamblers would advise against the move, but Futter had confidence in the horse. He made all bets on his horse during different races. Futter won £348,000 in one race and a total of £800,000 for all the chances Futter placed on Monty pass that day. However, Mike Futter was familiar with betting because he owns several bingo halls in Ireland.
9.James Adducci – $1.2m
James Adducci saw the potential in Tiger Woods even after he had stayed for over a decade without winning a championship. James placed a bet of $85,000 on Tiger Woods, predicting that he would win the masters. Hid prediction came true, and the bettor walked away with $1.2 million. His win broke the record of the most significant success in a single bet in a long time. There was no way of knowing that Tiger would win the 2019 masters after losing 11 consecutive years.
10. £585,000 From an 80p Bet
In 2011, a punter placed a bet on the William Hill website for 80p on a 19-game accelerator. Tough competition on that year’s premier leagues increased his odds to 683,738 to one. The football fan from a village in Malta had a rule of not placing a bet above £1. In the last game of the league, Chelsea was losing to Liverpool. Things took a turn for the better in the final half of the game. Daniel Sturridge scores a goal in the second score, bringing the score to a draw. Three minutes to the end of the game, Glen Johnson added another score, making Chelsea the winning team. That final goal guaranteed a win of £585,000 to the anonymous punter.
Conclusion
Learn Odds in casino games, and for Betting here
Crazy betting wins usually set a record because they are mostly unforeseen. Additionally, the people who make the winning predictions are not analysts or people with intimate sports knowledge. They are regular individuals who have mundane jobs and just trying their luck through betting. A few of the winners bet a significant amount of money on matches. In most cases, the punters wish to double their money or make at least half of their significant bets. Keep in mind that you should gamble responsibly, but as you can see from this list, some have won big betting less than a dollar when lady luck smiles upon them.
