Most bets are settled after a match or a race. Others need a royal announcement, a 100th birthday or a spacecraft landing on the Moon.
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A white Christmas looks lovely on a greeting card. Add a betting slip, and the date becomes rather important.
In 2009, Paddy Power decided to pay out early on white Christmas bets. The company expected bad weather and felt confident enough to give customers their winnings before the result was known. Its 2009 annual report later admitted that the early payout had been a mistake: the snow had arrived too late.
These funny bets gave customers an early Christmas present. Paddy Power got an expensive lesson in patience.
Picking a baby name is hard enough when you are one of the parents. Predicting another family’s choice adds a problem: you cannot join their conversation.
Before Prince Harry and Meghan announced their son’s name in May 2019, bookmakers offered novelty bets on their choice. Alexander was Coral’s favourite at 4/1. Ladbrokes had offered 100/1 on Archie, making it an outsider.
Then the parents revealed the name: Archie. The result was a surprise for the bookmakers. Ladbrokes said it had taken just 60 bets on the winning name, with only £100 staked in total.
Peter Edwards believed his young grandson, Harry Wilson, had a future in football. He backed that belief with £50. A William Hill branch in Wrexham accepted the wager on 17 January 2000. The odds were 2500/1. Wilson had to play for Wales at senior international level for the bet to win. Wilson later played for Wales’ junior teams, but those appearances did not count towards the wager.
William Hill also noted that England had been interested in Wilson, whose grandmother was born in England. Its spokesman said the bet would have lost if England had secured him for their team.
Almost 14 years later, on 15 October 2013, he came off the bench against Belgium to make his senior Wales debut. His grandfather’s £50 bet won a reported £125,000.
Alec Holden had an extra reason to look forward to his 100th birthday: William Hill would owe him money. In December 1997, Holden placed £100 on himself reaching 100. The bookmaker gave him odds of 250/1.
More than nine years later, on 24 April 2007, he reached the milestone. News of his birthday win confirmed £25,000 in winnings. At the time, William Hill spokesman Rupert Adams said age wagers were becoming costly for the company. He said future bets would set the target at 110.
The retired engineer also received 40 birthday cards, including one from the Queen. There was plenty to celebrate before he had even decided how to spend the money.
In 1964, British science fiction fan David Threlfall placed the first bet of his life: £10 on a human landing on the Moon. William Hill gave him odds of 1000/1. The terms of his wager allowed for a person from any nation to be on the Moon. Another celestial body at a similar distance from Earth would also count. The condition had to be met before January 1971.
His story helped make crazy bets on space travel popular in Britain. By the end of 1964, reported odds were 150/1 for the US space programme and 100/1 for the Soviet programme. As the space programme progressed, a William Hill spokesman said the company had accepted Threlfall’s bet as a joke and was now looking likely to lose.
Apollo 11 landed on the Moon in July 1969. Threlfall won £10,000 and received his winnings on live television in a London studio.
William Hill also accepted bets on intelligent life beyond Earth, although the winning condition involved a very earthly official. In 2007, the bookmaker cut its alien-life odds from 1000/1 to 100/1 after news of a potentially habitable planet. The British prime minister had to officially confirm the existence of intelligent alien life. This had to happen within one year of the customer placing the bet. A UFO report on its own would not meet that condition.
In 2008, internet rumours claimed that a spaceship would arrive on 14 October and remain visible for three days. William Hill suspended betting after a rush of wagers inspired by those claims. The reports describe the market and its suspension, but give no evidence of a winning payout.
Even a bet about visitors from another planet can end up depending on an announcement from a government office.
Unusual bets still need clear terms. These should define the winning outcome, any deadline, and how the result will be confirmed. An early payout is a separate decision by the bookmaker to pay before the outcome is known. The prediction can still turn out to be wrong, as Paddy Power’s Christmas story shows.
Some of the weirdest things to bet on have taken years to settle. Others depended on a family’s choice or a journey into space. And if the bet involves Christmas snow, waiting until Christmas is probably a good start.
