After more poor selections than Big Phil Scolari, we finally have a winner in our World Cup media betting competition.
Way back before the tournament started, our good friends at Ladbrokes sponsored a competition for 20 Irish sports journalists. The task was to make bets all the way through the tournament and the hack with the largest pot of cash accumulated at the end wins.
Before last night’s final, Gareth Makim of the Metro was the runaway leader, courtesy of his decision to back Mats Hummels to open the scoring for Germany against France way back in the quarter-finals. But there was still a chance Gareth could be overhauled if the other 19 players landed some monster bets. So a lot of monster punts were placed pre-game, as you can see below.
The exclusion of Sami Khedira before the game, Gareth’s pick, opened up an even better shot for the leader to be caught but none of the other 19 long shots came in, meaning Gareth held onto his lead. Here’s the final leaderboard.
So congrats to Gareth on his well deserved win and thanks to Ladbrokes for sponsoring the whole shebang. Great fun was had by all. Roll on 2018 when we can try and get some revenge.
