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Bookies Have Had To Pay Out A Staggering Amount Of Money Because Leicester Won The League

Bookies Have Had To Pay Out A Staggering Amount Of Money Because Leicester Won The League

Damn.

Matthew Cooper

Matthew Cooper

Last night Leicester City won the Premier League, obviously. It's been heralded as one of the most incredible things to happen in sporting history ever.

While that's up for debate it's unlikely that we will see something like this again for a very, very long time.

Nine months ago, when the season started the odds being offered on Leicester being crowned champions were a meager 5000/1.

And why wouldn't they be, in the last 10 years only Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea have won the league. Last season Leicester narrowly escaped relegation, but at 5000/1 it was definitely worth a quid.

Cue Claudio Ranieri, Chelsea falling at the first hurdle, Arsenal falling at that February shaped hurdle they trip over every year and now it's May and here we are.

Leicester now have a league title after Eden Hazard banter-apocalypsed Spurs last night. Chelsea's 83rd minute equalizer was enough to stop Tottenham clinching the three points they needed to keep their slim title hopes alive.

The Jamie Vardy party is alive and well and he will no doubt be joined by all those who put down money on this season's "joke bet."

However, bookies will be less than thrilled with all those who bet on the Foxes going all the way as between them they will be paying out £25 million, the biggest loss in British history on a single sporting market, The Telegraph reported.

In 2016, football is meant to be about big money and the clubs that can spend the most, so Leicester's achievement really cannot be interpreted as anything other than an anomaly, a simply stunning anomaly.

Claudio Ranieri knows this, when asked if they could do it again by Sky Sports he simply said "no."

He then expanded on it though: "We want to continue to build," he told SSN HQ's Rob Dorsett. "When I came here, the project was to build a very good foundation and slowly, slowly to grow up together in three to four years to fight for the Europa League and slowly come to fight for the Champions League.

"Now the season is out of our project but of course, the foundation is very solid. We know very well we have to fight for the position but we want to do our best. I'm positive and I want to fight."

To get some idea of scope the odds on this happening were identical to the quoted odds on Elvis Presley being found alive this year: 5,000-1 against. The squad that only lost three games all season cost a grand total of £54.4 million, which is the same amount of money Manchester City spent on a single player. Similarly, Manchester United have spent more money in the last two years than Leicester have in their entire history.

For future reference, it is unlikely bookies will ever offer such gigantic odds on 'small' teams winning the league again. Understandably.

Words by Matthew Cooper

Lead Image Credit: PA

Featured Image Credit:

Topics: League, Premier League