In 1981 Australian cricketers Rodney Marsh and Dennis Lillee bet against own team and backed England to win at Headingley
Anthony Collins, a trainer based in Scotland, had paraded Gay Future, a poorly-performing horse, at his stables as if it were the higher-rated, genuine Gay Future. The real Gay Future was then entered in a meeting at Cartmel in Cumbria, on a day when Collins had two other horses, Opera Cloak and Ankerwyke, running at other courses. A huge number of small bets were placed on the real Gay Future combined with Collins's two other horses as accumulators, only for Opera Cloak and Ankerwyke to be pulled out of their races thus leaving a vast amount of money now riding on their (wrongly) unfancied stablemate. Gay Future duly romped home and, following an investigation, the syndicate leaders were convicted of conspiracy to defraud the bookmakers and fined.
In more innocent times – before betting scandals dogged cricket – it was possible for the wicketkeeper and strike bowler of one Test team to back their opponents at odds of 500-1, win the bet and for it all to be interpreted as a charming anecdote. That is exactly what Australia's Rodney Marsh and Dennis Lillee did at Headingley in 1981 when England looked dead and buried before a legendary fightback inspired by Ian Botham, pictured, and Bob Willis. It's not known exactly how much the pair picked up.
Essex boys Paul Simmons and John Carter cleaned up during the 1991 British Open. They had toured betting shops around the country looking for odds on the chances of a hole-in-one being scored at the Open. Intuitively, that seemed like a long-shot and the bookies agreed by consistently offering the pair odds of 100-1. However, Simmons and Carter knew that statistically the odds should have been calculated at around even money and so it proved. Brian Marchbank delivered on the tournament's first day, hitting the bookies for £500,000.
Carpet tycoon Noel Furlong won £2m at the 1991 Cheltenham Festival backing his own horse, Destriero. That was painful enough for the bookies, but Furlong had doubled up with The Iliad — a 25-1 shot in the Champion Hurdle. Individual bookies had liabilities of more than £10m and they panicked. As the bookies hedged their exposure, odds narrowed to 11-2. Although the Iliad lost, it was still a nightmare for the bookies.
Days after being made redundant in July 2005, Liverpudlian Ian Carswell placed a 20p each way accumulator bet covering six horses with Ladbrokes, in July 2005. The bet cost £25.20, but from his change Carswell put another £1 each way accumulator on the same horses. The gamble succeeded, paying £796,706.52 at odds of 194,000-1. Unknown to Carswell, Ladbrokes had just days earlier increased its £500,000 limit on winnings to £1m.