Lucky fan cashes in on successive eight goal thrillers

Tuesday night’s eight goal thriller at wasn’t only a disaster for Liverpool - the bookies also suffered. Paddy Power had to pay out £500,000 to 537 punters who correctly backed the 4-4 draw at odds of 500-1.

According to The Sun, a man from Leicester (who remains anonymous as gamblling is forbidden in his Muslim religion) caused the Irish bookmaker the most damage, after backing both of Liverpool’s recent 4-4 draws:

The 31-year-old landed £12,500 last week when he predicted the outcome of the club’s Champions League tie against Chelsea.Then he put some of the winnings on backing the same score in Tuesday night’s Premiership clash against Arsenal.

He was rewarded after Gunners’ goal hero Andrey Arshavin scored four and Liverpool’s Yossi Benayoun got a last-gasp equaliser.

The father of two bet £25 at odds of 500-1 on the first match and £57.64 at 500-1 on the second.

Through gritted teeth, Paddy Power said they “couldn’t be more delighted” that the punter scooped such a huge reward, in light of the fact that he had recently lost his job.

Portuguese star uses his time off wisely

Following Alex Ferguson’s decision not to take the FA Cup semi-finals very seriously, Cristiano Ronaldo found himself with a rare weekend off. According to the Daily Mail, the Portuguese star channeled his inner Paul Merson, choosing to hit the table at Manchester’s 235 Casino on Friday night.

Apparently, he dropped up to one thousand pounds (or, one thousand ‘prostitute tokens’ as he prefers to call them) in the casino’s plush VIP suite.

It’s not known if he won anything, but he’d have to put down a lot more than a grand if he wants to compete with high rollers like Gisele Bündchen.

Betting chain make an inspired choice of spokesman

Paul Merson secured legendary status after turning out for Arsenal more than 300 times, but the forward’s career was blighted by his personal demons. For twenty years, he battled alcoholism, cocaine addiction and a serious gambling habit that he once claimed has cost him £7m.

These aren’t the ideal credentials for a spokesman for a betting company, but the folks at Better Bet are using the former star to help encourage others to gamble.

Merson is “best mates” with the founder of the company, and has opened shops in Enfield and Birmingham for them (see the flyer to the right).

Better have now gone one step further, and are displaying posters of the Sky Sports pundit in their betting shop windows - check them out here and here.

A spokesman for Better insisted Merson doesn’t hold an account with them, but added:

“The customers love Paul and can relate to him.”

Um, is it a good thing that the customers can relate to him?

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Gambling addict offered further temptation by popular tabloid

West Ham’s Matthew Etherington is said to have received death threats over an £800,000 gambling debt, and his club have agreed to help bail him out. While those in the game are offering full support to the midfielder during an apparent relapse in his gambling addiction, the nation’s favourite tabloid The Sun has not been so kind. Have a look at the online version of the story and you will see something that won’t help the star through his tough time - a large advertisement for a popular bookmakers.