Novelty bets are an amusing part of sports betting.
These wagers on whether or not an unlikely event will take place usually have long odds of taking place and are a fun side bet.
Unfortunately for betting firms, some of these novelty bets do happen and this often results in the sportsbook having to shell out a nice sum of cash.
This is what Sporting Index, the UK's largest spread betting firm experienced when a bettor on their FIFA World Cup ‘Shocking Decision, Ref’ wager won the bet.
Now that bettor currently stands to win £30,000 and Sporting Index isn’t too happy to pay out or so it appears.
The wager itself was pretty basic. Bettors are allowed to estimate how many times a ball will cross the goal line in the World Cup without being declared a goal. The initial estimate by Sporting Index was 22.5. This was because the company believed that the new use of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) at the 2018 FIFA World Cup will ensure that a lot of goals would not be counted.
However, despite the VAR's presence, in the first 20 games of the World Cup, only one goal was not counted. This was noticed by Simon Cawkwell, an avid bettor and former City trader. He was also advised to bet on a lower number by Andrew Woolfson, who co-founded Be The House, a gambling software business. He decided to take the challenge and wagered that the amount would be lower.
Now, Cawkwell is set to win £2,000 for every point lower than 22.5. The FIFA World Cup is in its closing stages and so far the ball crossing the line without a goal being awarded has only happened seven times so far. At 15 below Sporting Bet’s estimate, Cawkwell should receive a payout of £30,000, although that amount might get lesser if the remaining two games experience non-scoring goals.
Cawkwell has a long history of successful gambling. He once made £1 million by betting against Northern Rock. He also won a £250,000 wager on the 2007 Rugby World Cup where he bet that southern hemisphere teams would outscore their rivals.
Sporting Index quickly realized that they had messed up their ‘Shocking Decision, Ref’ and stopped accepting soccer bets much to the disappointment of Cawkwell who wanted to wager more money.
In a statement, Sporting Index said
The Shocking Decision, Ref! market is very popular with our customers and is one that we have offered on World Cup finals and European championships since 2002. Like all markets it is based on historical data. We cannot comment on individual client's bets, but we can confirm that the market has seen two-way business both before and during the tournament
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