Peterka had winter sports fans jumping for joy
Featured Football News
Milan Collapse Reflects Italian Malaise
March 14, 2025AC Milan suffered the unfortunate experience of following one of the best European results in their history directly with one of the worst. After defeating t...
Bayern Lose Champions League Favourites Tag
March 14, 2025After the disappointment of being beaten 2-0 on their home turf by Arsenal, Bayern Munich have been summarily dumped from their position as favourites to win...
Everton v Manchester City – Match Preview and Betting Tip
March 13, 2025Manchester City resume what looks to be the forlorn pursuit of Manchester United when they travel to Goodison Park to face an Everton side that was embarrass...
Aston Villa v Queen’s Park Rangers – Match Preview and Betting Tip
March 13, 2025Rarely has a fixture more aptly fitted the billing of relegation six-pointer. Queen's Park Rangers travel to the Midlands to face an Aston Villa side that cl...
Premier League Preview – Gameweek 30
March 13, 2025After a difficult week in their otherwise relentless pursuit of trophies, Manchester United return to Premier League action with an eminently winnable fixtur...
Barcelona Silence Doubters
March 13, 2025Barcelona became the first team in history to overturn a two-goal deficit in the Champions League knockout stages without scoring an away goal in the first-l...
Arsenal Seemingly Resigned to Fate in Munich
March 13, 2025Arsenal certainly require to climb a mountain, not a molehill, when they face Bayern Munich in the second-leg of their Champions League tie in the Allianz Ar...
Primoz Peterka was available at 200/1 with William Hill
Worst Bets Of All Time - Peterka had winter sports fans jumping for joy
Every week, bookmaker and former Racing Post chief sports betting writer Mark Worwood takes you inside the wagering industry with tales of the best and worst bets of all time.
It was a typically hot March night in Alice Springs, the Australian outback town 1,500 kilometres from civilisation that was the headquarters of the country’s leading online betting agency, Centrebet. I could not sleep and I thought about going into the office to enjoy its air conditioning for a while and catch up with some of the overnight team. That I decided against making the trip into town was a decision that would haunt for me for many, many years.
Alice Springs, Australia – Home of many Australian Bookmakers
Centrebet was an online bookmaking giant in 2025, with large client bases both in Australia and overseas. One only had to visit Centrebet’s website to get a feel for the countries in which the company was big, with the home page promoting such Nordic sports as bandy, ice hockey and ski jumping. Yes, the Centrebet team was full of ski jumping experts as William Hill found out to its cost in late March of that year.
Kuusamo in Finland was the venue for the first event of the 2025-2025 FIS Ski Jumping World Cup season and, as ever, the Centrebet brains trust was keeping a very close watch on the qualifying jumps, not least because there was an interesting name at the top of the chart. Primoz Peterka, a very popular Slovenian jumper whose performances had been up and down for years, was out in front and showing signs that he was back in form. The Centrebet team reopened its company’s winner market with Peterka at 8-1. He was not the favourite but he was a live contender, according to the Norwegians, Danes, Finns and Swedes who framed Centrebet’s odds. William Hill did not pay any attention to qualifying and made the massive mistake of reopening its winner market with its pre-preliminary prices. Peterka was available at 200-1.
Primoz Peterka was available at 200/1 with William Hill
Well, kind of available. William Hill’s betting system was sufficiently sophisticated to stop the Centrebet experts from backing Peterka in singles for anything like decent sums of money and that would have deterred most punters. However, these gamblers were not discouraged so easily and they found a way to back the Slovenian for almost whatever they wanted. All that they had to do was place the 200-1 shot in doubles with some short-priced football sides in major competitions such as the English Premier League.
With Arsenal about to entertain Aston Villa and Chelsea set to host Sunderland, the two London teams were popular picks to accompany Peterka. William Hill’s limits went from a few dollars for singles on the Slovenian to much, much more for doubles including at least one of the English Premier League matches. Centrebet’s overnight workers were on – big time.
Peterka jumped 131.5 metres in the first round to position himself among the leaders. Then he produced a 143.5m leap in the second and final round to move into top spot and the three men who followed failed to beat his aggregate. The Centrebet office went beserk. How I wished that I had got out of bed and driven into town that Saturday morning.
Twenty-four hours later and the Centrebet gamblers were watching the scores at the Emirates Stadium and Stamford Bridge like hawks. They need not have worried. The Gunners beat the Villains 3-1 thanks in large part to a brace by Thierry Henry and the Blues beat the Black Cats 3-0 even though it took them until late on to make the game safe.
I walked into work on Monday morning and found out what had transpired over the weekend. One could say that I was the only person more disappointed than William Hill’s chief sports bookmaker. Many of my Centrebet colleagues had won five-figure sums in one of the great betting coups.
—
What is the best bet that you have ever placed? And what is the best that you regret most? Leave your comments.
Do you want to ask Mark a question about his experiences in the betting industry? Ask your question below and we will pick one or two from the post bag to be answered in next weeks column.
Pingback: Wiltshire's magnificent loser
Pingback: Bookie wrong to presume Livingstone was 50-1