Hunting down an underdog victory or two can be a way to increase the odds of your acca.
It’s not something that necessarily comes highly recommended – those higher odds simultaneously equal a lower win probability, but if you want a bit of entertainment of a Saturday afternoon then it’s one route to go down.
You suspect that even Hull City fans were pessimistic about their team’s chances upon their return to the Premier League, with Manchester United the visitors on the opening day of the new campaign.
But the Tigers showed plenty of bite against the Red Devils, coming away with a famous 2-0 victory on home soil.
And that underdog win was the catalyst for one Sky Bet customer, whose £2 eight-fold landed despite them backing a number of outsiders at long prices.
Within a few hours, they had turned their stake into a payout of a cool £11,007!
Underdogs Have Their Day
Goals from Semi Ajayi and Nobel Mendy guided the Tigers to an opening day triumph, securing our punter an early ‘W’ on their acca coupon at odds of around 15/2.
Another newly promoted side, Ipswich Town, were also the underdogs – albeit only just – against last season’s surprise package, Sunderland.
The Tractor Boys took an early lead through their new striker, Emersonn, before the Black Cats hit back via a fine strike from Nilson Angulo.
The contest was nip-and-tuck from there and always likely to be settled by the next goal… that came in injury time via Jack Clarke, sending the Portman Road crowd into raptures.
With those two decent priced selections in the bag, our punter than had a couple of odds-on chances to cheer home.
Mind you, Real Madrid – as short as 1/3 to beat Espanyol – were made to work incredibly hard for it.
Indeed, it wasn’t until the 90th minute that the winning goal arrived courtesy of Carlos Espi.
At least their two other odds-on selections – Marseille and Al Nassr – obliged comfortably on the Friday, with that man Cristiano Ronaldo netting the fourth for the latter, who won by the same 4-0 scoreline as Marseille.
West Brom were impressive winners over relegated Burnley, rallying from going an early goal down to prevail 3-1: an Isaac Price brace leading the way.
Real Betis had beaten Real Sociedad 1-0 on the Friday, but the best of the bunch was undoubtedly the DFB-Pokal victory of SSV Jeddeloh over Heidenheim.
SSV Jeddeloh, of the fourth tier, demolished the Bundesliga.2 side 5-2 despite having gone a goal behind early on. Not bad for a 25/1 underdog…
So that’s the tale of the tape as this customer, with a keen eye for an underdog, was able to turn £2 into £11,007 via an outstanding set of 5,500/1 selections.
Ghosting to Glory
They weren’t the only big winner of the weekend at this bookie mind, as another customer took advantage of the firm’s ‘Ghost Leg’ promotion.
In 2026/27, they will scrub one losing leg from your Build-a-Bet when you play a Ghost Leg token ahead of the games getting underway.
Their customer had backed six different players to either score or be carded, applying their Ghost Leg token in the hope that at least five of their selections would oblige.
They backed Chelsea duo Joao Pedro and Morgan Rogers to find the net against Fulham, with the former getting on the scoresheet inside the first minute.
Rogers, Chelsea’s £117 million summer signing, then also scored to put our punter in the box seat – given that one of their card selections, Romeo Lavia, had already been cautioned.
They needed more, though – specifically Reece James, Calvin Bassey and Sander Berge to pick up cards in Monday’s Craven Cottage clash.
As luck would have it, James and Bassey would be booked just one minute apart – the former for pulling back Josh King and the latter for simulation following a tackle from Enzo Fernandez.
Unfortunately Berge, subbed off in the 62nd minute, didn’t receive a card, but the Ghost Leg saved our punter – while enabling them to turn £5 into a handsome £1,422.