The general advice is not to add too many selections to your acca because after a point, you are almost dooming yourself to failure. It’s usually good advice, but there is always the odd bet that makes a mockery of it.
This winning 23-fold European football acca is one such bet.
An unknown William Hill punter stuck a bold £20 on their ambitious acca, and turned it into £78,294.17 during what must have been a very nerve wracking week of football.
In my view, this bet was placed by a professional, or at the very least someone with reams of data to work from. Why? Because the games chosen were from a wide range of countries and leagues including:
- England
- Spain
- Italy
- France
- South Africa
- Belgium
- Bulgaria
- Czech Republic
- Poland
- Romania
- Serbia
Plus, the market for each bet was either over 1.5 goals or goals in both halves.
It could have just been a mad bet that toured Europe, but it’s very specific, and no one has learned knowledge of football in all of those countries. My guess is some sort of data analyst or number cruncher.
The spokesman from William Hill seemingly agrees:
“This has to be one of the most impressive accumulator bets we’ve seen in some time with correct goals-based predictions in an scarcely believable 23 European and international football fixtures across the course of this week.”
“Sticking to bets on over 1.5 goals and goals in both halves, this is not merely a lucky flutter.”
The longest odds in the acca were 17/20 and the shortest 1/5, so the key to this win was lots of selections at short odds.
It came close to losing, though.
As is so often the case with these big acca wins, it was seconds from disaster when the West Brom v Sheffield Wednesday fixture was still at 1-0 as the clock hit 90 minutes. Luckily not one but two goals came in extra time, and the bet was saved, but it was almost a goner.