$40 bet on World Cup is a winner

ONE Kiwi punter can thank the boot of Swiss striker Haris Seferovic for turning $40 into $113,725.

The big winner is among local football fans betting on the Football World Cup, which is more popular than four years ago, even though the All Whites are not playing. The multi-bet holder correctly predicted the scores of the Japan v Ivory Coast, France v Honduras and Argentina v Bosnia-Herzegovina games.

But the punter must have been holding his breath as the Switzerland-Ecuador game crept into injury time, stalemated at a 1-1 draw, NZ Racing Board betting general manager Glen Saville said.

The punter predicted the Swiss would win – as they did in ‘‘almost the last kick of the game’’.

Seferovic scored in stoppage time to give Switzerland a 2-1 win.

Another Kiwi with Lady Luck on their shoulder was the sole punter who picked the Netherlands would thump Spain comprehensively, 5-1.

The odds were 150-1 $2 bet returned $300.

Overseas, a Norwegian gambler won more than $3000 betting that Uruguay striker Luis Suarez would bite another player in the tournament. The New Zealand TAB had not offered ‘‘biting bets’’ – but did offer the option of picking the players who would be redcarded. This, alongside overall better viewing times, was thought to be behind the football fever sweeping the country – with more interest than when the All Whites played in the 2010 World Cup.

More than $17 million had been bet at the TAB by the end of the pool games, about $5m more than at the same stage in 2010.

Before their failure to make it out of the pool stage, England were a big favourite, with lots of money put on the team, Saville said.

The England team were also popular with TV viewers – their 2-1 loss to Italy was the most popular so far of the free-to-air games, drawing an audience of almost 300,000, TVNZ said.

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