Lucky gambler takes home US$37,000 after correctly predicting eight draws in Zimbabwe Premier Soccer League Saturday games

A LUCKY gambler struck gold on Super Sunday when a US$2 ticket earned a whooping US$37,000 following an historic day in the Castle Lager Premiership in which eight league games ended in draws.

This means that the gambler would have taken home a staggering US$370,000 if he or she had placed US$10 on the bet.

It has also emerged that various punters won big on the drawn league matches and the betting houses could fork more than US300,000 on those games alone.

It’s the first time, in the history of the domestic Premiership, that eight games have ended in draws.

Only one game, featuring the league’s worst team, Kwekwe United, did not produce a draw and predictably ended in another defeat for the Midlands side.

Kwekwe United slumped to a 0-4 thrashing at the hands of Triangle at Gibbo.

Another gambler invested US$1 and won US$12,056 after correctly predicting that eight of the nine matches in the penultimate round of the top-flight league championship would end in draws.

The winning amount included a 10 percent bonus of US$1,095,91.

The odds of him or her winning were 10,960 to one.

Champions Scottland were held to a draw by Greenfuel, who are fighting for their place in the Premiership, at Wadzanai in Shamva.

Dynamos and Yadah, who were also fighting in a relegation scrap, also settled for a 1-1 draw at Ngoni in Norton.

ZPC Kariba and TelOne also drew their match as did Bikita Minerals and Simba Bhora, CAPS United and MWOS, FC Platinum and Herentals, Ngezi Platinum and Chicken Inn and Highlanders and Manica Diamonds.

Five games – Scottland versus Greenfuel, ZPC Kariba versus TelOne, FC Platinum versus Herentals, Ngezi Platinum versus Chicken Inn and CAPS United versus MWOS – ended in goalless draws.

What these winning punters did was that the same as gambling that, at least, 110 players, in action involving a combined 450 minutes on Super Saturday, would all fail to score a goal.

The odds of that happening, in football, are very slim.

Even in the games, which ended with goals, the goals were few and far between.

Highlanders and Manica Diamonds settled for a 1-1 draw at Barbourfields, Bikita Minerals and Simba settled for a 1-1 draw at Gibbo and Yadah and Dynamos settled for a 1-1 draw at Ngoni.

The goals in the Dynamos/Yadah game came very late, with the Glamour Boys equalising in time added on.

What this means is that, in terms of the punter who took home a cool US$37,000, it all came down to the goal which was scored by Dynamos forward Issaka Mohammed at Ngoni.

That header, which rescued a point for the Glamour Boys, also ensured that the punter was able to cash his little fortune.

“This is something which doesn’t happen often,” an official with a betting company told H-Metro.

“After a day like this, we sit down and try to analyse what could have happened and we realised that the draws in the local PSL and some draws in the Tunisian leagues were responsible for these cash outs.

“That’s the way the industry is, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose and there are days when things, which usually don’t happen like the draws in our PSL, happen and some people win big.

“We are told it’s the first time there has been so many draws in the PSL in one weekend or one day of the programme.”

The chances of the person who won US$37,000 were about 18,500 to one for him or her to win but, somehow, it happened.

Punters were offered US$3,05 for every dollar they invested in the match between Bikita Minerals and Simba Bhora ending in a draw.

They were also offered the same amount for every dollar they invested in the CAPS United/MWOS game ending in a draw.

They were offered US$3,75 for a dollar for the draw in the game between FC Platinum and Herentals and they were offered US$2,90 for a dollar for a draw in the game between Highlanders and Manica Diamonds.

They were offered US$3,05 for a dollar for a draw in the game between Ngezi Platinum and Chicken Inn and US$4,60 for a dollar for a draw in the game between Scottland and Greenuel at Wadzanai.

“These are massive odds and if you are a gambler basically what the house is telling you is that there is this little fortune to be made if you are brave enough and those who are experienced in the industry will tell you that it’s a bait and don’t go for it,” said a punter.

“You can say it’s almost impossible for such a pattern, based on such high odds, to come out the way it did in these eight PSL matches.

“But, this is what gambling is all about and you should understand that for all those who are smiling after what happened in those league matches, there are also many who are crying because they lost.

“In fact, that is the majority of the people because I think it looked easier to say that Dynamos were going to win, Scottland were going to win and probably Highlanders were also going to win and the guys who bet for that lost.”

Another gambler said:

“It’s a small difference between losing and winning and when you look at the results from the PSL on Saturday you can see that all these guys who have won were losing in the final minutes of that game between Dynamos and Yadah.

“Then there was a goal there in injury time and it changed everything and losing tickets became winning tickets.

“It’s such a small margin of difference.

“We have not had a season like this one in our PSL as far as I can remember where you have about ten teams in relegation danger with just a few games to go and I think that made all these games tense and when you have tense games you also have a lot of draws.

“That is my explanation.”

CAPS United players were promised a cool US$2,000 bonus, the highest in the history of the club, to beat MWOS at Rufaro on Saturday.

However, the Green Machine could only settle for a goalless draw.