'Why I bet £900k on the Scottish referendum'

Written by:
Gilbert Horowitz
Published on:
Sep/22/2014
'Why I bet £900k on the Scottish referendum'

The BBC spoke to an anonymous individual who bet £900k on the NO to Scottish independence.  He has the check to prove it.

He tells the BBC:

I made the bet in four installments but I'd always planned to wage £900,000. I staggered it in the hope that the odds would improve closer to the time - they didn't. The best I got was 1-4. So for every £4 I bet, I'd get £5 back.

So although I received a cheque for £1,093,333.33, my actual winnings were just under £200,000.

The first time I walked in to the William Hill I tried to place a bet of £400,000. The bookies weren't set up to take it. They could only process £9,000 deposits at a time so it would have taken almost a whole day of separate transactions. By the time we organised a better solution the next day, the odds had worsened.

I've had a career in finance in which I've had to make projections and limit risk as much as possible. These were my savings, my money, but I felt I'd done enough research to be sure of the outcome.

William Hill, England’s biggest bookmaker, confirmed the bet. 

The Scottish referendum was the most wagered on political event ever.

- Gilbert Horowitz, Gambling911.com

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