How long would you be willing to wait for a bet to settle?
It’s a common conundrum for punters that like to wager on football outright markets, for example, or ante post horse racing bets. Sometimes, your stake can be tied up for months on end.
But that didn’t matter to one William Hill punter, who placed an epic 1,100/1 ten-fold acca way back in June 2024.
Their bet would not be settled until May 2025, and when it was… well, they found themselves to be more than £22,000 richer!
£20 ➡️ £22,082 👏
Arsenal’s confirmation of a top 4 finish landed this William Hill customer’s ambitious 10 fold acca! 🤑
18+ | https://t.co/YhEVj27I2j pic.twitter.com/Gby0WF14Oa
— William Hill (@WilliamHill) May 20, 2025
Summer Lovin’
It all started last June, when the first handful of our punters’ bets played out.
They had a series of horse racing selections running that month, backing two to place only. The first, Bowman, took to the track at Ayr on June 3 in a Class 5 handicap, and while he certainly didn’t have things all his own way, he did manage to finish in second place to satisfy the bet.
The second of those place-only picks was Apeeling, who ran that very same day at Windsor. Andrew Baldwin’s three-year-old was a 5/1 chance in a fillies’ novice stakes, however she made light work of a wide draw to get in front and then, just about, cling on by a neck to 15/8 favourite Red Pixie in second.
Our punter took more of a chance on their third horse racing pick of the day in the shape of 13/8 favourite Noisy Music, who they backed win only at Windsor. And when Mick Appleby’s charge was meandering in mid-division towards the business end of the race, things looked set to go south.
But a patient ride from Rossa Ryan kept Noisy Music in the hunt, before he eventually showed his class in the final furlong to run on and win by a length.
After a good day’s punting on the horses, it was over to football for the William Hill customer’s next picks. On that very same day, June 3, England took on Bosnia in an international friendly. Unsurprisingly, the Three Lions were a 2/5 favourite and it showed, with goals from Harry Kane, Cole Palmer and Trent Alexander-Arnold securing a comfortable 3-0 victory.
Their next pick unfolded on the opening night of EURO 2024 back on June 14. Can you remember the result of Germany vs Scotland? Our punter can; sorry to remind the Tartan Army, but the Germans ran out handy 5-1 victors to lock in the fifth winning selection.
A Very Good Year
William Hill spokesperson Lee Phelps described their customer’s mammoth win ‘prophetic’, and another word beginning with the letter p – patient – springs to mind.
They had to wait more than six months from Germany’s thrashing of the Scots to see if their sixth pick would land. That was Luke Littler, the teenage darting sensation who toed the oche in the PDC World Championship.
The Nuke had lost in the final the year before, but this time around he was not to be denied – taking the January showpiece 7-3 against Michael van Gerwen having romped into a 4-0 lead.
Six down, four to go. But now our punter would need to wait until the end of the football season in May before they could learn their fate.
In fairness, as Littler was firing in his winning double, the punter’s football selections were already looking good. Arsenal have barely been out of the top four of the Premier League all season, and with the likes of Manchester City, Chelsea and Tottenham all struggling to some extent, backing the Gunners to finish in the Champions League places was almost like buying money.
As for Birmingham City, well, they never looked in any danger of not get getting promoted from League One. The big-spending Blues outgunned the rest in the third tier, clinching the title as early as April 12 on their way to a record-breaking 111-point tally.
The final piece of the puzzle was Burnley, who our intrepid punter had backed to secure promotion from the Championship. The problem was that the Clarets were well matched by Leeds United and Sheffield United, with the battle going right down to the wire.
Burnley did things the hard way, beating the Blades 2-1 at Turf Moor on April 22, to confirm their promotion mathematically.
Our punter’s mammoth acca has now been settled… and, nearly a year after striking the bet, they find themselves to be £22,082 to the good!