What is the biggest bet struck on the Premiership title? Bookmakers Fred Done and Victor Chandler’s alleged £1m wager about the relative finishing positions of Man Utd and Chelsea doesn’t count — it was a publicity stunt arranged between two individuals. A live candidate, however, must be last week’s £700,000 wager on Arsenal to win at odds of 5-4, struck with, you guessed it, Fred Done’s Betfred. So what kind of punter would have such a bet — 10 times bigger than any other Premiership punt this season? Burlington Bertie can reveal it was none other than punting legend Harry ‘the Dog’ Findlay, who stands to win £1,575,000 (stake included). William Hill’s Graham Sharpe told BB that not only was the bet the biggest of its type he’d come across, but the likes of Hills and Ladbrokes would find it impossible to match: ‘It would be irresponsible for a public company to take a bet like that. How could you balance the book?’
Holmes and dry
Like an infuriating internet pop-up, betting on the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year award (SPOTY for short) looms as an uninvited attachment to every major sporting event of the year. Wayne Rooney scores at Euro 2004 — he’s the new SPOTY favourite! Tim Henman wins a match at Wimbledon — SPOTY fav! And we fall for it. But the truth is that the BBC competition has more favourites during the course of a year than an 18-year-old millionaire in a Liverpudlian brothel. Until the last few days, the latest SPOTY favourite (replacing last week’s SPOTY fav — poor Paula Radcliffe) was Matthew ‘Four Golds’ Pinsent, but the 1-20 available about the blubbing oarsman winning must rank among the least tempting wagers of all time. Kelly Holmes’s stunning 800m victory initially only served to reduce Pinsent’s price to 1-10, but the trickle of money developed into a flood, and our golden girl appears the only one capable of raining on Pinsent’s parade
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The Loch Ness punter
The betting exchanges are alleged to have their very own Scarlet Pimpernel — a veritable Goldfinger whose tentacles extend anywhere money can be wagered on sport. The prosaic moniker borne by this betting Titan, is, erm, Pat Naylor. Such is the mystery surrounding this man, that the name ‘Pat Naylor’ is now even being bandied around by ‘informed’ pundits on television shows. Sad to report then that neither bookmakers nor the betting exchanges could find any trace of him. The story was so good: punters had to invent him. Like the Loch Ness Monster, one suspects the Naylor legend will live on