Student loses £1million after filling in wrong betting slip

A Leeds Met student who predicted 14 correct football scores enjoyed a night of wild partying after thinking he had won £1 million, only to find out the next day he had used the wrong betting slip.

Jordan Donnellan, 19, had got 11 out of 11 matches right and was waiting for the last three results to come through on Sunday at his local pub in County Durham.

The pressure was on after Atletico Madrid beat Real Betis 2-0 in Seville and Stoke beat Aston Villa at Villa Park 4-1, and his final bet was for Juventus to beat Catania in the Italian top league.

Met-er luck next time

A group of around 25 friends and family erupted as striker Carlos Tevez scored for Juventus and the party really kicked off at the final whistle, after thinking Donellan’s £1 accumulator had won him a million.

In a rush of anticipation, Donnellan  took the slip in to his local Ladbrokes, expecting to cash in his newly found fortune.

He says an assistant checked the results, offered him a congratulatory hug, and said he would have to return as the shop did not have that amount of cash on the premises.

However, despite the assistant’s joy, when Donnellan returned three hours later, the mistake had been spotted and the prospects of his fortune (perhaps like his degree) had diminished.

A goal rush betting slip similar to Jordan’s

So what went wrong? It turned out that Jordan had filled out a Weekend Result Rush – which requires both teams to score, and offers higher odds – instead of the Weekend Quickslip form he thought he had used.

Jordan commented: “I genuinely believed I was going to win £1m. We were jumping around and celebrating.”

Ladbrokes said the higher odds offered in the Weekend Result Rush required both teams to score – and so Mr Donnellan had a losing bet. If he had correctly filled out the Weekend Quickslip he would have won much less than £1m.

David Williams, Ladbrokes spokesman, said: “It’s rather like buying a UK lottery ticket then spotting that your numbers have come up on the Australian Lotto. You then claim that it’s what you meant to do in the first place and then expect to be paid out.”

David concluded:  “It was a nice try but it is also nonsense.”