The World’s Best Bets – How Does Horse Racing Match Up?

How does betting on horseracing match up?

The world of gambling is filled with stories of success, whether expected or not, which ended up netting gamers more money than they could ever dream of. While it’s certainly not the only way to enjoy the sport, horse racing has long been our go-to when it comes to sports betting but recent stories have had us wondering – how do wins on horse racing compare to other forms of betting victories? Searching the net has brought us some pretty interesting tails, and now we’d like to share the best with you.

Bet Low, Win Big

Plumbing engineer Steve Whiteley managed to hit it big back in March 2011 with what we can safely assume was a bet for which he didn’t like his odds. Whiteley put his money down on six different horses in a Scoop6 to win a jackpot against players from across the UK and Ireland. Formerly having honed his skills online, he had a plan, and he would stick with it.

Placing down only £2, he would have to be some sort of wizard of bets to see anything approaching a decent return from his long-shot. As you’re reading this article you probably know what comes next, as Whitely ended up right on the money, taking home a massive £1.45 million, according to the Daily Mail. Not a bad return on investment, that one.

The Beautiful Win

Another accumulator bet, this time from the world of football. This unnamed patron placed down a £100 bet on the outcomes of 8 individual matches, with the odds of winning sitting somewhere in the area of 1 in 6,542. The matches themselves turned out to be real nailbiters, and that’s for people without money riding on the line, so we can only guess as to how stressful this must have been in the closing minutes.

Though, if a little stress is the cost of walking away with what is reported by the Coventry Telegraph as a win of £650,000, then maybe it isn’t so bad after all.

No Wrong Turns

As a big family man and supporter of his son’s interests, British father Richard Hopkins was always at the track to support his sons early karting races. One day, while out doing the whole dad thing, Hopkins noted that one of the go-kart drivers appeared leagues above the others in terms of skill, remarking that the teen was no doubt destined for something big.

Convinced of the inevitability, Hopkins placed down three bets on the future success of the racer, all involving the idea that the racer would go on to win a Formula 1 race before the age of 23 (500/1 odds), and would win a world title before the age of 25.

As that young racer’s name was Lewis Hamilton, Hopkins was eventually rewarded with a total of around £165,000.

Dizzying Success

Away from sports betting, there are still some big wins by average Joes. British soldier, Jon Heywood, was playing the online slot game Mega Moolah from Microgaming,when he won a truly life-changing amount. Speaking to Betway Casino after his win, the 26-year-old revealed that he had only created his account less than an hour earlier.

As the winning screen popped up Heywood, still not paying real attention, figured he had won £10,000. On closer inspection, it had turned out he had misinterpreted, and that he would really be taking home winnings of £13,213,838,68. Recorded as the largest jackpot win in online slot game history, we can only assume Heywood then quit his job as a soldier, and then went shopping for a few tanks of his own.

Belief is Everything

In baseball sometimes you have to swing for the fences, and that attitude applies to betters as well as players. Knowing this, an unnamed St. Louis Cardinals fan placed a bet of $250 that they would make it into the World Series – not the surest bet given the 500/1 odds. Not content with that display of faith, the man later added to this bet, placing $125 on the 999/1 odds that Cardinals would go all the way into winning the World Series.

In one of the biggest surprises in baseball history, the Cardinals managed to pull off exactly as the man had hoped. Not only did this give him a massive payout of $375,000, it proved to everyone that the underdog can win, and in spectacular fashion.

What is Next?

It’s not easy to tell where betting and betting wins could go, but given how easy it is to place bet these days, and how the betting market is bigger than ever before, we would predict that we’ll see most of these records beaten eventually. It does make you appreciate though, that sometimes even the longest shots can be the most accurate, and that nobody should be counted out. Sure, we might have started out with bets on horse racing, but all this winning makes us think that maybe we should start to branch out.

Category: Betting