Punters should quit while they're ahead

William Hill

He placed his bet with bookmakers William Hill, a spokesman for whom, Graham Sharpe, said: "He was like a roulette player who left his chip to ride on red just once too often.

"For the biggest single football bet of all time to be placed on a Third Division game is quite astonishing."

The gambler's run of bets started well when he successfully predicted that Lazio would win Italy's Serie A title.

He then put his winnings on Galatasaray to beat Arsenal in the UEFA Cup Final, Chelsea to win the FA Cup and Real Madrid to triumph in the Champions League.

High-risk strategy

Lazio to win Serie A Galatasaray to win UEFA Cup Real Madrid to win Champions League Darlington to beat Peterborough

His bookmakers concede that they thought they were facing a massive pay-out as the Darlington game approached.

"I must admit we were getting more and more apprehensive as his winnings began to mount up," said Mr Sharpe.

"There's a school of thought that says punters should quit while they're ahead - but thankfully for us he didn't."

Darlington had been 8/11 favourites with William Hill to win last Friday's match at Wembley Stadium in London.

Despair extended far beyond Darlington

A �500,000 wager at those odds would have yielded a return of �863,000 for the Polish punter but a late Andy Clarke goal put paid to his run of good fortune.

It is believed that he may be the same man who put various large bets on Manchester United last year at offices in the City of London - winning him �50,000.

He has remained anonymous but it is thought that he is from Warsaw and divides his time between Britain and Poland.

There remains the possibility that he may attempt to recoup some of his losses via sporting fixtures over coming days.

His Darlington bet was placed with William Hill's off-shore division, where bets made by telephone or internet off-shore are not subject to betting duty.

That has saved the man �112,320 in tax.