Epic Sports Betting Wins And Losses

The majority of us keep our gambling on a casual level, but some of you out there may take it a little more seriously. Either way, where sports betting is concerned you know the score: you win some, you lose some.

The Professional

Starting as a young child gambling his paper round money, he went on to become a professional sports bettor; this is his one-person success story.

Bill Walters

Bill’s start in life was not a happy one, but he went on a crusade determined to pull himself out of the rut. Over the years, Bill worked long hours and gambled hard, playing poker and casino games, but always keeping some in reserve for his beloved sports betting.

When he moved to Las Vegas in 1987, he concentrated entirely on sports, becoming the most feared punter for every sportsbook. Bill is known to have won and lost millions during a single football or golf game, but his biggest known coup was in 2010 when he gambled $3.5 Million on the underdogs in the Super Bowl. The amount he won that day remains a well-kept secret.

Bill Walters retired with a $100 Million fortune, but rumour has it that he is still betting hard and playing poker.

Celebrity Show-Offs

We are sure that you already know that certain wealthy celebrities can’t help but flash their cash and one way they seem to love doing it is betting on sports.

Floyd Mayweather

Boxing superstar Floyd Mayweather is almost as well-known for his notorious sporting gambles. Over the years he has won and lost more than the average punter will earn in his working life. However, being high on the all-time ‘rich list’ of sportsmen, we guess he can afford it.

Floyd’s biggest bet was for $815,000, which he placed on the Denver Broncos American football team, who just happened to be playing the New York Jets. But this was not only a straight win or lose bet; he added a clause that they would win by more than 7.5 points. Floyd’s gamble paid off, but literally during the 4th Quarter of the game and he walked away with another $14 Million in his bank account.

We all know where Floyd is now, we just bet that he was sweating more that night than he does in the boxing ring.

Michael Jordan

Michael Jordan, best known for his basketball skills, is another personality that is high up on the top 10 of wealthiest athletes. He is also a serial sports bettor and there have been rumours that his retirement came about because of his gambling addiction.

Nevertheless, he is still an incredibly wealthy man, despite at a low-point in his sports betting ventures losing $1.2 Million on a game of golf, where he bet $100,000 per hole. As for Michael’s losses, there has never been a figure published, but the fact that his gambling buddy Richard Esquinas wrote a book about his addiction may give you a clue.

To coin his catch-phrase, these days ‘Magic Mike’ is “keeping it fun and entertaining” and enjoying his immense wealth.

Standard Punters

Just to show that you don’t need to be a celebrity or a professional bettor, here are two stories about ordinary, working folk, who happened to strike lucky.

Mick Gibbs

Mick, who lives in Staffordshire is a roofer by trade, but he also loves his footie and gambling on it. There is not just one success story for Mick either; he has taken a large sum of money off the bookies on two separate occasions.

1999 was the year of his first big win, totalling £157,000 which was the result of a £2,50 bet where he correctly predicted the winners of nine European football matches. Then in 2001 he went a step further placing a bet on the outcome of fifteen games at odds of 1666666:1, the gamble paid off and for a £0.30 stake, Mick won £500,000.

So is Mick Gibbs still a roofer? We were not able to find out, but if he has any sense, he will have retired long ago to somewhere hot.

Anonymous Winner

A Leicestershire punter, who chose to remain anonymous is a compelling case in point. Having been an avid horse racing enthusiast with numerous bets placed over 20 years to prove it, landed a 5-fold forecast at Punchestown racecourse.

He was a follower of form, with a family connection to a bookmaker, so his first four selections made sense. But the odd thing is that his fifth and final selection, in the last race of the day, was running at 33-1. Anyway, nobody but this lucky man will ever know why he chose that horse, but he walked away with very close to £823,000 for a wager totalling just £19.

Where he is now and what he is doing remains a mystery, although it is a safe bet that the bookie in question rapidly closed his account after that!

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