Record Setback For World's Biggest Political Punter
A WILLIAM HILL client who staked the biggest winning political bet of all time on the Scottish Referendum was licking his wounds after his £205,500 bet on a Hung Parliament in the General Election proved to be the biggest losing political bet of all time.
The customer, a man from South West London, bet £900,000 on the result of the Scottish Referendum - making a profit of £193,000.
However, he then staked £205,500 on a Hung Paliament in the General Election - but lost it all.
'He is philosophical about the setback and told me he will be keeping a low profile for the time being' said Hill's spokesman Graham Sharpe.'It is a little like a heavyweight title fight in which we took a first round battering but managed to come back strongly in the second' added Sharpe.
Other Hill's clients bet £50,000 and £23,000 on a Hung Parliament.
The biggest losing bet on Labour was a £9673 stake by a London betting shop client on Ed Miliband to become Prime Minister.
However, Hills suffered a 'six figure loss overall'- ('probably up to £500,000 when everything is finally totted up' said Sharpe)- after taking almost £3million on the General Election. 'We took a string of bets, big and small, on an overall majority for the Tories at odds ranging from 10/11 back in 2010 ,to 10/1 on Election night and for much of the night it looked as though we would be winning those bets.' said Sharpe, 'But one client from Wiltshire staked £13,500 on an overall majority and collected £80,000, and another, from Devon, bet £85,000 on the Tories to win most seats and received £153,000.
There was another £20,000 from a Southgate, London client on the Tories to win the most seats at 4/11 which returned £27,272 and a £10,000 bet from a Yorkshire customer on David Cameron to remain as Prime Minister returned £20,000.'
Overall, Hills said they estimated that 'up to £20million was at stake on the outcome of the Election industry-wide'. Hills say around a quarter of the money staked on the Election was placed in betting shops, the remainder online.