{"id":34459,"date":"2016-03-18T10:00:56","date_gmt":"2016-03-18T17:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=34459"},"modified":"2016-03-18T10:12:19","modified_gmt":"2016-03-18T17:12:19","slug":"leicester-city-5000-1-bets-in-uk-soccer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/leicester-city-5000-1-bets-in-uk-soccer\/","title":{"rendered":"Leicester City 5,000-1 Bets, Longest Outsider Odds in Soccer History"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leicester City\u2019s shock dominance of the English Premier League<\/a> in the UK this season could lead to one of longest betting shots in sporting history coming good. \u201cThe Foxes\u201d are living the dream at the top of the league, five points clear with eight games left, as the world looks on in disbelief.<\/p>\n

\"Leicester
Leicester City fans in the UK celebrate their team\u2019s Premier League title hopes, which could be the biggest outside bet in the history of soccer. (Image: mirror.co.uk)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And now the handful of bettors who backed them at the beginning of the season at 5,000-1 could soon make betting history. As the BBC pointed out recently, these are exactly the same odds you could get on Elvis turning up alive this year, possibly wearing a frock. That\u2019s a dress to those of us across the pond.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s add further perspective for those of you don\u2019t follow the EPL. Last year, Leicester, newly promoted to the EPL after a decade in the lower tier, were struggling against soccer\u2019s multi-million-dollar superstars. Battling relegation, they seemed destined for the drop.<\/p>\n

A late run of wins ensured survival, but many expected them to go down this year. Except instead they shot out of the blocks at the start of the season and never once looked back.<\/p>\n

The combined cost of Leicester\u2019s usual starting 11 is around $30 million, which is less than half of the sum Manchester City paid for one player<\/em> in the pre-season transfer window. Kevin de Bruyne cost over $76 million when he joined City from Wolfsburg.<\/p>\n

By contrast, Leicester star player Riyad Mahrez cost the club $796,900, and meanwhile top goal scorer, Jamie Vardy, who three years ago was playing amateur non-league soccer, was picked up for $1.3 million.<\/p>\n

The Long Shots<\/strong><\/h2>\n

OK, so it hasn\u2019t happened yet, but if it does, as outsider bets go, it is the biggest in the history of soccer, by far.<\/p>\n

The longest odds for bets on a single soccer result that we can find were both 500-1, and were paid out when the USA beat England 1-0, in 1951, and Hungary beat England 6-3 in 1953. A long, long time ago, in other words.<\/p>\n

Since then, of course, bookmakers have learned a thing or two about the variance involved in the outcome of a single game. But if you look at odds-defying outsider victories in recent sports over a series of games, they aren\u2019t even close to 5,000-1.<\/p>\n

In soccer, there was Greece winning Euro 2004 (150-1); in tennis, Goran Ivanisevic\u00a0winning Wimbledon in 2001 (150-1); in golf Ben Curtis’ Open Championship win in 2003 (500-1).<\/p>\n

In fact, the only thing that gave the bookies bigger sweats was jockey Frankie Dettori\u2019s seven straight victories at the Ascot race meet in 1996 at odds of 25,095-1. It was a series of events so extraordinary that one bookmaker referred to it as \u201cArmageddon,\u201d and it\u2019s believed to have cost the bookmaking industry a gut-wrenching $45 million.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Cash Out Now or Hold Out for Crazy Payout?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The fact is, the bookmakers won\u2019t be sweating Leicester too much at all. That\u2019s because any big payouts they have to make in the event of a Leicester win are likely to be handsomely offset by hundreds of thousands of losing bets on the favorites.<\/p>\n

The sweat belongs entirely to the team\u2019s fans, and to gamblers who for some insane reason decided to back the team at the beginning of the season.<\/p>\n

This last group is also faced with the conundrum of whether to cash out now for a hefty sum or ride it out for an even bigger one, should it come through.<\/p>\n

Alex Donohue of UK bookmaker Ladbrokes<\/a> told the BBC that there are 23 gamblers who are yet to cash out.<\/p>\n

“Around half of the 5000-1 backers have cashed in their chips, while the rest hold their nerve,\u201d he said. “Record sums have already been paid out on a bet yet to be a winner and for many fans the lure of a life-changing sum of money is too much with several difficult games still to go,” said Donohue.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of course, a lot can happen between now and the end of the season, including injuries, exhaustion, and nervous meltdowns, but they have been saying this about Leicester for months now, and they are still there, sitting pretty at the top, and now the bookies\u2019 favorite to win the league.<\/p>\n

And who knows? If they do, maybe Elvis will turn up for the celebrations. Stranger things have not yet happened.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Leicester City\u2019s shock dominance of the English Premier League in the UK this season could lead to one of longest betting shots in sporting history coming good. \u201cThe Foxes\u201d are living the dream at the top of the league, five points clear with eight games left, as the world looks on in disbelief. And now […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":34475,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,16],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLeicester City 5,000-1 Bets, Longest Outsider Odds in Soccer History<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If the UK's Leicester City wins the EPL, we will witness a landmark in betting history.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/leicester-city-5000-1-bets-in-uk-soccer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Leicester City 5,000-1 Bets, Longest Outsider Odds in Soccer History\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If the UK's Leicester City wins the EPL, we will witness a landmark in betting history.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/leicester-city-5000-1-bets-in-uk-soccer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-03-18T17:00:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-03-18T17:12:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Leicester-City-EPL-bets-at-5000-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/leicester-city-5000-1-bets-in-uk-soccer\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/leicester-city-5000-1-bets-in-uk-soccer\/\",\"name\":\"Leicester City 5,000-1 Bets, Longest Outsider Odds in Soccer History\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/leicester-city-5000-1-bets-in-uk-soccer\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/leicester-city-5000-1-bets-in-uk-soccer\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Leicester-City-EPL-bets-at-5000-1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-03-18T17:00:56+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-03-18T17:12:19+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77\"},\"description\":\"If the UK's Leicester City wins the EPL, we will witness a landmark in betting history.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/leicester-city-5000-1-bets-in-uk-soccer\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/leicester-city-5000-1-bets-in-uk-soccer\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/leicester-city-5000-1-bets-in-uk-soccer\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Leicester-City-EPL-bets-at-5000-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Leicester-City-EPL-bets-at-5000-1.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":630,\"caption\":\"Leicester City fans in the UK celebrate their team\u2019s Premier League title hopes, which could be the biggest outside bet in the history of soccer. 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