Football punters come to all sorts of ideas and the bookkeepers are more times than not happy to oblige. Why not, it’s easy money, right? Regardless of the outcome, some of those bets can get quite strange and funny and we tried to collect some of the funniest football novelty bets ever. The list is not graded and it contains some pretty strange bets that you may not find funny, but outright hilarious.
- William Hill offered 7/2 odds on a bet that any player would mimic the iconic Paul Gascoigne crying moment at any time during the World Cup 2010 tournament. There is no record of anyone taking them up on those odds.
- In 2006, a Xavi Alonso goal brought a £25,000 payday. He offered a bookie 125-1 odds for a bet stating that Alonso would score a goal from his own half during the season. The bookie called it the easiest £200 they ever made. Well, he regretted saying it as Alonso made good on the punter’s prediction with this masterpiece.
- Two opposing fans made a pretty funny and somewhat outrageous bet. As Uganda’s Observer newspaper reported, Henry Dhabasani and Rashit Yiga bet each other on the outcome of the Man. United-Arsenal game. Henry staked his house, Rashid was a bit more creative and staked his Toyota and his wife! The bet was ratified by the village council and after the Devils won it 1-0, Henry was evicted from his house. His three wives and five children were not too happy about it.
- The most expansive Glen Johnson Goal ever was scored in November of 2011. His 87th-minute goal brought a fan from Malta an amazing £585,000 payout from an 80p bet at William Hill. That’s 683,738/1 odds that the bloke struck with the late goal, but reportedly, that goal earned more than $19 mill for the punters all over the world.
- In 2010, Mali was down four goals to nil against Angola, and there were 16 minutes left in the game. Then, an unnamed fan placed a £4000 on Angola to win. Low and behold, Mali scored 4 games, making it even.
- During the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, Norway based Betsson offered 175-1 odds on a pretty strange bet. More than 100 people took them on for a bet stating that Suarez will bite someone during the tournament. Pretty strange bet considering he had already done it twice and received penalties for it. But, he did it again, which the punters appreciated very much.
Football punters all over the world started making even crazier bets after the Leicester miracle season and we are surely about to witness some of them coming true during this season. Looking forward to having a laugh alongside the winners.a
