A 60-year-old man from Belfast is celebrating this week, after he won almost £140,000 on a golf bet that he placed in error.
The punter, who wishes to remain anonymous, placed the bet online with
coral.co.uk, and thought he had backed Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano to win the Qatar Masters and Kyle Stanley for the Waste Management Phoenix Open in a £50 each-way double.
However, he actually backed the Spaniard to be leading at the end of the first round in Doha after he selected the wrong market on the bookmaker’s website, something that turned out to be a winning outcome.
Coral spokesman David Stevens told Bettingpro.com: “The customer was unaware of his mistake, and when Paul Lawrie triumphed in Qatar, he assumed his double had gone down as Gonzalo Fernando-Castano finished outside the top five, so he didn’t tune in to see Kyle Stanley complete a remarkable victory in America.
“When he logged on to his account on Monday morning, he got a very pleasant surprise to see his balance was almost £140,000, and once he checked the bets he had actually placed, he was able to celebrate.”
Both selections were priced at 50/1, returning the customer £139,162.50.
Stevens continued: “He admitted that he meant to back Fernando-Castano to win the tournament, not lead after the first round, so had no idea he had won so much, but he said the winnings will make a huge difference to his family, with his son’s wedding later this year chief among his spending plans.
“When we saw his bet we thought he was an incredibly shrewd golf punter, but now we know he’s also the luckiest, and certainly making a mistake has never been so profitable.”
