A fan of Lewis Hamilton won £125,000 (US$267,500) after betting 10 years ago that the British Formula driver star would win the World Championship, a bookmaker confirmed on Monday.
Ladbrokes said that total, along with a winning bet that paid out £40,000 a year ago for the unnamed fan, was the biggest single pay-out for a Formula One bet in the firm’s history.
Hamilton, 23, clinched the championship when he passed German driver Timo Glock to take fifth place on the final lap of the Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos, beating out Felipe Massa by a single point for the overall title.
UNIDENTIFIED
According to Ladbrokes, the unidentified customer, who is from Peterborough, north of London, made three bets totalling £350 in May 1998.
He collected £40,000 last year on a £200 wager at 200-1 odds that Hamilton would win his first Formula One race before he turned 23.
And on Sunday, he collected £50,000 on a £100 bet at 500-1 that the British driver would win the World Championship before his 25th birthday, along with a £50 bet at 1,500-1 odds that both events would happen.
“I’ve known Lewis from his early days and it was easy to see he had an obvious driving ability, coupled with a fantastic attitude to racing,” the man, whose son used to race go-karts against Hamilton, said.
HUNCH
“I just had a hunch he would go on to bigger and better things,” he said.
He is planning to use his winnings to buy a Tag Heuer watch, take his family on holiday to Cuba and buy his wife a Mercedes-Benz car.
“We had been sweating on this bet for a while,” said Ladbrokes spokesman Nick Weinberg.
“We survived last year but there was a feeling that we had only put off the inevitable,” he said.
A British television audience of some 13.1 million saw Hamilton claim the world title on Sunday, according to figures released by broadcaster ITV.
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