Monday 19 January 2015 15:19, UK
One Liverpool fan was celebrating becoming over £80,000 richer on Sunday after their anxious wait for a 14-fold accumulator was ended with West Ham’s 3-0 victory over Hull.
The Sky Bet punter staked £5 and had all but one of their legs landed by Saturday evening, having correctly predicted 13 results from the Premier League, Football League and Conference.
While the punter was made to wait until the 49th minute before Andy Carroll fired the Hammers on course for victory, it was nothing compared to the late drama required in the Sky Bet Championship.
86th and 90th minute strikes were needed to ensure his Wolves win prediction came in, before Bryan Ruiz’s 93rd -minute winner for Fulham against Reading sewed up 12 out 12 correct picks.
Saturday Night Football will have been watched with extra intent as Southampton beat Newcastle 2-1 thanks to Eljero Elia’s brace, setting the punter up for a nervous wait until Super Sunday’s opener.
West Ham duly delivered with a win which added a woeful weekend for the Football League sponsor, who reported recorded losses as all of the 10 best-backed teams recorded victories.
The winner, who preferred not to be named, said: “I always watch the scores come in on Soccer Saturday, with Liverpool in there every time, and when Fulham’s goal came up on the Videprinter I knew I was going to win it.
“I was actually following the West Ham game on the virtual football screen on the Sky Bet app and my son-in-law, who was watching it, was providing me with updates.
“I decided not to cash out on Saturday evening as I was confident West Ham would beat Hull, although I couldn’t bring myself to celebrate until the final whistle.”
“It’s fair to say I had a pretty restless night on Saturday and it was even worse during that first half as West Ham were getting battered, but thankfully they won and now I’m thinking about whether to move house and where to go on holiday.”
Sky Bet Football Trader Chris Spicer said: “Hats off to the punter but they could have picked a better weekend to nail such an audacious accumulator, with his remarkable win adding to an already woeful weekend for bookmakers.
“Each of the 10 best backed teams won on Saturday, which is, fortunately for us, extremely rare.”
