Woman wins almost £600,000 with £1 bet after landing 12-fold accumulator

Steve Cook's 92nd minute winner away at Newcastle United earned Bournemouth a much needed three points on Saturday (4 November). What the Cherries defender did not know is that it also won a woman almost £600,000 off a £1 bet.

The unnamed woman, who apparently has little interest in football and bets only because her son and husband watch football every weekend, landed a 12-fold accumulator which returned £574,278.41.

According to the Daily Mail, the 58-year-old's son read the fixtures list out and she picked the teams because on the basis of whether she liked the sound of their names or not.

"It is incredible that the lady got them all up," Carli Faulkner, the employee who paid out the bet was quoted as saying.

"Usually customers laugh when they see a payout figure on the bottom of their slip like £574,000, but this just goes to show it can happen.

"They will be having a cracking Christmas and I am delighted for them as it's real girl power landing a bet like that. My biggest ever payout before this was around £25,000."

By picking her teams purely because of their names, the winner backed a number of outsiders. She backed Bolton Wanderers, who started the weekend bottom of the table in the Championship, to beat mid-table Norwich City at home and Bournemouth, Brighton and Burnley all to win away from home in the Premier League.

The winning bet, which was placed in a William Hill shop in Leysdown-on-Sea in Kent, was made even more remarkable by the fact the winner's husband has allegedly bet on football for around 40 years.

"She certainly had lady luck on her side as her hubby has never had a win anything like that," added William Hill spokesman Rupert Adams.

"It just goes to show if you can't beat them join them and the payout in this case is absolutely fantastic. We wish them well.

"In my 15 years in the business working for William Hill I have never encountered a bigger football win by a female punter for just a quid."

During Leicester City 's incredible title run two seasons ago, Leigh Herbert, a life-long Leicester fan, became popular after revealing he had cashed out part of his £5 bet on the Foxes to win the league.

Herbert stuck £5 on Leicester at 5,000/1 early in August 2015 and cashed out for a tidy £5,680 return, before landing a further £15,000 from the remaining £3 stake that was left running on his original bet.