A Maltese man has won €683,739 in a bet on Sunday’s Liverpool-Chelsea match, bookies William Hill reported.

When Liverpool’s Glen Johnson scored their late winner against Chelsea he turned a punter’s hard luck story into a half a million pounds football fairy-tale, William Hill said. The goal landed record odds of 683,738/1 from William Hill for the 41-year-old gambler who had staked less than a pound on an accumulator bet of 19 football results, the previous 18 of which had already won. This left his entire wager – at that stage already £152,000 – riding on the outcome of the Chelsea-Liverpool game in which the visitors were 7/2 underdogs.

The punter from Malta, who placed his bet online and had never staked more than €1 on any bet he had placed, collected £585,143.24 for his stake – which translates to €683,739.

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