Betfair Customer Wins £3,486 from £5 ‘Losing’ Bet

Football Hitting Net with Blue Background

As a general rule, punters are advised to bet slow and steady at the start of the new football season.

Teams are just getting into match shape, with new players and tactics still needing a bit of ‘bedding in’ time during competitive games – pre-season friendlies just don’t cut it in preparing sides for the intensity of league action.

Mind you, that didn’t deter one Betfair customer, who decided to place a £5 accumulator on a six-fold coupon featuring pre-season friendlies and Champions League qualifiers.

What followed was a lesson in why utilising bookmaker promotions, such as early payouts on two-goal leads and Betfair’s own 90 Minute Guarantee, should not be overlooked.

Because without them, our anonymous punter would not have landed a £3,486 payout from his £5 acca.

Six of the Best

The six-fold kicked off with that toughest of betting heats: the humble pre-season friendly.

But our punter must have done their research, because a strong Lille starting eleven – who finished fifth in France’s Ligue 1 last term, just a solitary point behind third-placed Monaco – proved far too classy for Venezia, who were relegated from the Italian Serie A at the conclusion of the 2024/25 season.

A brace from Olivier Giroud formed the backbone of the French outfit’s comprehensive 3-0 victory.

The second bet was Club Brugge to win on the road at Red Bull Salzburg in Champions League qualifying.

This was a 50/50 contest as far as the bookmakers are concerned – quite literally, with both the Belgians and the Austrians priced at 6/4.

It was a nip-and-tuck contest throughout at the Red Bull Arena, justifying the pricing, but in the end the Belgians just managed to nick it courtesy of a Romeo Vermant goal… but our punter had to sweat until the 74th minute for that.

Meanwhile, in Europa League qualifying, Latvian side FK RFS were quoted as odds-on favourites on home soil against Finnish underdogs, KuPS.

Not that are punter cared, as he or she backed KuPS to land a shock victory at odds of 7/2.

So what unfolded was the stuff of dreams, as Jaakko Oksanen gave the Finnish outfit the lead after just 14 minutes, before Mohamed Traore doubled their advantage just nine minutes later.

RFS pulled one back in the second half through Barthelemy Diedhiou, but KuPS would hold on to land a memorable 2-1 victory for them and for our punter.

Three down, three to go…

Every Loser Wins

Next up: a trip to the beautiful Croatian city of Rijeka, where Irish side Shelbourne were the visitors in the third qualifying round of the Europa League.

Shelbourne were considered nothing more than 9/1 outsiders for the contest, but our punter had already shown a knack for picking out underdogs… and they were up to their clairvoyant best in Croatia, too.

A goalless first half was followed by an explosion of goals in the second period, with Rijeka looking as though they were going to live up to their odds-on status when taking the lead through a Niko Jankovic penalty.

But Shelbourne stuck to their task and never gave up; they were rewarded for such resilience with two goals in the space of 12 minutes – Sam Bone levelling up the scoreline before John Martin notched the second.

Rijeka threw the kitchen sink at the Irishmen, but they would cling on for a famous victory.

The fifth leg saw another eye-catching European location, Nice, play host to a Champions League qualification game between the French side and Benfica.

Once again, our punter went against the grain… and once again, they were rewarded. No goals in the first half gave way to a pair in the second; the Benfica backer buoyed to see that both went the way of the Portuguese side courtesy of Franjo Ivanovic and Florentino Luis.

And so all that stood between our punter and a 696/1 winner was a trappy looking bet on a draw in the Champions League qualifier between Feyenoord and Fenerbahce.

The Dutch outfit took the lead via a Mert Muldur own goal early on, and the scoreline did not change until the 86th minute – Sofyan Amrabat equalising for the Turks.

As the clock ticked agonisingly towards the 90th minute, our punter may or may nt have been aware that Betfair’s 90 Minute Guarantee was in play… meaning that for the purposes of their bet, they would be paid out as the clock struck 90.

And that was exactly what played out… although Feyenoord would go on to notch a 91st minute winner.

Fenerbahce boss Jose Mourinho promised Feyenoord ‘hell’ in the second leg… but our punter was in heaven; and £3,486 to the good from a ‘losing’ bet.