A man was left gutted after losing out on £1,000 from a £5 bet on Liverpool's crucial Premier League tie with Manchester City on Sunday.
Tom Haden, from, Coventry, placed an accumulator with Bet365 with five elements in the match. Everything was going well for Tom who saw four of his bets come in including Kevin de Bruyne to score, Portuguese attacker Diogo Jota to bag which he did in the 13th minute, and for both Andy Robertson and Bernardo Silva to get booked.
With all four elements coming in the first half Tom looked set to net a tidy profit off his £5 bet. The last element was for the match to end in a draw which it did thanks to a second-half Sadio Mane goal.
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But, as BirminghamLive reports, with the match at 2-1, Tom had a decision to make when Bet365 offered him a ‘cash out’ – accept a lower guaranteed sum at £193.08, rather than letting the bet run out to the end of the match. With City having the best of the play in the first half, he felt sure they would score next and decided to take the cash – a tidy profit of £188.08.
But he was left ruing his decision when Mané, scored and the match ended in a 2-2 draw - just as his bet had predicted. Although Manchester City did have the ball in the back of the net in the 63 rd minute, through Raheem Sterling, the goal was ruled out by VAR for a narrow offside.
Tom Tweeted his decision on the stroke of half-time and said: “I’ve taken the £193… come on City” with the crying with laughter face. But an hour later the 25-year-old, who lives in Loughborough, felt like shedding real tears, after missing out on £1,061.92.
His Tweet went viral at the end of the match ‘for all the wrong reasons’ as Tom said, with more than 12,000 likes, nearly 500 Tweets and more than 400 replies. Tom told BirminghamLive: “There was a minute left to play in the first half and it was 2-1 to Man city. At the time Liverpool hadn’t turned up in the first half.
“If City got a third it was game over, and it was only a fiver bet with a £193 return so I took it. At the time I thought I would be more frustrated had I not taken the cash out and then City had scored next.
“Mané scored really early in the second half and the bet was in but I’d already cashed out. I think how you feel about it depends on your situation. At the time, if you can go without £200 then you can let it run. But for me it was too good to turn down. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t kicking myself.”
Tom continued: “I only bet on rare occasions, the big games or the Grand National which was also this weekend. You have got to look at it as making £188. Although I could have won £1,255, I didn’t lose that amount.
“As Troy Deeney [a fellow Birmingham City fan and striker with the club] once said about Arsenal not having the ‘cojones’ [finishing sixth that season. 37 points behind champions Man City], I’d have probably bottled it and cashed out at 2-2!”
Another gambler also missed out on an even bigger pay day yesterday with their Bet365 accumulator bet also posted online at the weekend. It had three correct scores, Brentford to beat West Ham 2-0, at 16/1, Leicester City to beat Crystal Palace 2-1 at 10-1 and Man City to draw 2-2 with Liverpool which was 14/1. For a fiver that would have netted £14,025, but they cashed out at £1,722.37.
Tom said: “They have still had a nice pay day but I think they’ll feel the same as me!” Asked what he would do with his winnings he said: “I’ll buy a couple of beers to drown my sorrows.” And if he’d one £1,000 more, maybe treat my family and friends and perhaps have a holiday He added: “I will be in no rush to cash out in the future.”
