A WISE MAN once said that “accumulator” is Latin for “a multiple bet in which all of your selections win, except for the last one.”
Somewhere in the US, an NFL fan spent most of Sunday afternoon wishing and hoping that the Philadelphia Eagles and the Baltimore Ravens, the final two teams in a 15-bet accumulator, wouldn’t let them down.
They didn’t. Now the lucky punter is sitting on a potential payday of $100,000, all for a stake of just $5.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that the unnamed gambler placed a Delaware parlay bet — which involves picking 15 teams to win against the handicap spread – before week five of the league began ten days ago.
The mathematical odds of winning the bet, introduced in 2009, are roughly 32,000/1 but the state’s lottery only pays out at a measly 20,000/1 if there is a winner.
Until this weekend, nobody had ever managed to get all 15 teams up. Twice, in 2009 and again in 2010, a player fell at the final hurdle after racking up 14 straight winners (told you that Latin definition was accurate).
But with the Eagles covering against the Washington Redskins and the Ravens easing away to a 15-point victory over the Houston Texans, the Delaware parlay now has its first, significantly wealthier winner.
Let’s just hope that they can find that betting slip now.
