Portsmouth punter felt 'sick' after winning £1m from £4 football accumulator bet

A Portsmouth punter said he felt “sick” after winning almost £1m from £4 football accumulator bet.

The 45-year-old placed £4 on 12 matches across the EFL to all have over 11.5 corners, which won him a staggering £997,385.

Describing how the bet came about, the big winner said: "Me and some friends usually do an accumulator on the weekend for a bit of fun, we all pick a leg and put them in our group chat, both teams to score usually, and I like to do corners.

"I had £4 in my account so I decided to do one of my own with a few more corners in. I'm sure that I'll be treating my mates after winning this one, it will be my round all the time.”

At half time, the bet wasn’t looking very promising with just one corner in the match between Reading and Barnsley, while there were only four corners in the first half between Cambridge and Plymouth.

QPR may have hit Swansea for four goals in the first 45-minutes, but there were only four corners in the game at that point too.

Nevertheless, the set pieces came flooding in during the second half of all 12 games, and while there were no goals in the match between Oxford and Bradford, both sides made up for it in corners, with 14 in total.

It took a while for the Portsmouth punter to realise he’d won the incredible amount of money: "I didn't actually realise it had come in until about half an hour after all the games had finished,” he explained.

“I'm an Aston Villa fan and was out with my son watching the early kick-off, which started the day really well. Then we walked back home and got soaked with the weather, and when I checked my account I couldn't believe it.

"I don't know how to describe it really. It was emotional, I felt little bit sick at first making sure it was real, and then obviously the reality kicked in.

"My wife was out at the time when I checked, I needed her to come back to clarify the amount that was in there, I kept asking her 'this is right isn't it?' It didn't seem real, it's hard to put into words.

"I didn't sleep much last night, thinking about what we can do with the money. It's a really good feeling, it's brilliant."

With his winnings, the winner plans to pay off his mortgage, buy a new car for him and his wife and enjoy a family holiday, as well as going to more games at Villa Park with his son to watch their team.

Betfair Spokesperson, Sam Rosbottom said: “We are absolutely delighted for this Portsmouth punter and couldn’t be happier to pay out such a large sum of money.

“It’s an incredible amount to win on a football accumulator, congratulations from everyone at Betfair.”