Thursday, September 01, 2005

Alvaro Recoba for Inter Milan (v Sampdoria), 9 January 2005

Don't you just hate it when other people steal your ideas or knowledge and don't give you credit?

The excellent Guardian football website has a weekly feature called "The Knowledge" where readers can contribute football related questions (often odd in content) for fellow readers and the Guardain to answer.

Last week, a reader had asked:

"From a betting odds perspective, what is the most unlikely thing to have happened in football?"

Now then, I thought I knew the answer to this and here is a copy of the email I sent to the Guardian on Wed 24 August.

I am sure that there were punters who matched the maximum price (999-1) on Betfair on January 9 2005.

Inter Milan were 2-0 down at home to Sampdoria as they entered injury time at the San Siro, and I am sure I remember reading that there were a couple of punters who backed them for the win at 999-1 on Betfair.

Obefemi Martins, Alvaro Recoba and Christian Vieri then proceeded to score for Inter in injury time to secure an unbelievable 3-2 victory and those lucky punters walked away with 999 times their stake.

As this is the maximum price on Betfair, surely this must be the most unlikely bet ever to come off?

A good answer, I thought.

And then, I see this article on this weeks Knowledge:

Back in January, Internazionale trailed Sampdoria 2-0 with two minutes left of their Serie A clash. "With maximum odds of 1000 against (the equivalent of 999-1) available, the price was snapped up by a Berkshire man," says company spokesman, Tony Calvin. "Then Obafami Martins scored in the 88th minute, before Christian Vieri and Alvaro Recoba won the game for Inter in injury-time. The punter had scooped almost a grand for his £1 staked.

Huh? almost exactly word for word what I had e-mailed to them with absolutely zero credit whatsoever. I demand an apology! Compensation! Credit for my obvious genius football knowledge.....! (the full piece is here)

sigh.

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