A football fan says he is 'kicking himself' after he missed out on the chance to win over £1,000 from just a fiver when he 'cashed out' early on a bet during the big Manchester City v Liverpool game.
Tom Haden placed an accumulator bet with Bet365 ahead of the clash between the two title rivals at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday afternoon which had five elements.
He needed the Blues' Belgian star Kevin de Bruyne to score, which happened in the sixth minute, Liverpool striker Diogo Jota to score, who then equalised in the 13th minute, Reds' left-back, Andrew Robertson to get booked, which he did on 28 minutes, and City midfielder, Bernardo Silva, to also receive a yellow card, which happened in the 40th minute.
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Birmingham City fan Tom also predicted the match would end as a draw. He stood to win a whopping £1,255 if all five parts of the bet occurred.
However at half-time, with City leading 2-1 and the other four elements already having already been achieved, he accepted an offer from the betting firm to 'cash out' and accept a lower guaranteed sum of £193.08, rather than letting the bet run out to the end of the match reports Birmingham Live.
Tom said he felt that was a sound decision after City had the better of the play in the first half. But he he was left ruing his decision when Sadio Mané scored for Liverpool just after half-time and levelled the game up. A Raheem Sterling strike in the 63rd was ruled out for offside by VAR and there were no further goals meaning match ended in a 2-2 draw just as Tom's bet had predicted.
Tom had 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 originally hails from Coventry and now lives in Loughborough, felt like shedding real tears, after missing out on further winnings of £1,061.92.
His Tweet has then gone 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. “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" Tom said.
“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.”
“I only bet on rare occasions, the big games or the Grand National which was also this weekend" Tom continued. "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 won £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.”
