There were some huge moments on the pitch during a marathon night of Champions League action and some big celebrations off it, with one punter landing just over £15,000 from a seven-fold accumulator.
Wednesday’s Champions League group phase saw 18 games all kick-off at the same time, sparking a betting frenzy for accas and multipliers.
There was a lot of pre-match excitement from fans who had placed potentially grand-grabbing accas, but there were no safe bets during an evening of high drama.
Things didn’t go to plan for Real Madrid and last season’s finalists Paris Saint-Germain and Inter Milan who all failed to book automatic qualifying places.
Real Madrid stumbled to a shock 4-2 defeat at Jose Mourinho’s Benfica, which saw the Portuguese team steal a late place in the play-off stage.
A stunning stoppage-time header from Benfica goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin sent Mourinho running down the touchline to celebrate as the stadium erupted.
The £15k Champions League Accumulator
The big accumulator win relied on two things, a variety of bets and a huge original stake.
The seven-fold acca won £15,082.69 from a £775 bet, a high-risk, high-reward strategy that most of us wouldn’t go anywhere near.
Four games were picked to have over 2.5 goals, including the match in which Benfica’s Turbin turned from goalkeeper to goalscorer.
Two more selections backed both teams to score.
Tottenham to win at Eintracht Frankfurt made up the slip and may have sounded unlikely considering Spurs’ recent form.
But Frankfurt had managed just one win from their opening seven Champions League games and Tottenham were comfortable 2-0 winners.
The bet was placed by X user FredoTipping.
Sky Bet Customer Wins £1,759 From £5 Stake
Sky Bet shared details of a much more affordable success story, with one customer winning £305.61 from a £5 five-fold bet.
The punter selected five straight winners from the evening matches which produced odds of 61.12/1.
Wins for Pafos, Olympiakos, Bayer Leverkusen, Chelsea and Club Brugge completed a successful night.
That was topped by Sky Bet customer @Jordolenko who shared details on X of a £1,759.50 win.
Their five-fold included a 19/1 shot Copenhagen to win at Barcelona.
A shrewd use of Acca Freeze saw them lock the result at a 1-0 away win after Copenhagen took a surprise lead.
Placing a £5 stake at overall odds of 350.9/1, the punter bagged an impressive £1,759.50 return.
Another Sky Bet customer @rsblackwell93 replied with details of their own win, a £341.86 return from a £5 stake.
That included using a freeze on the result of the Napoli vs Chelsea game with the Italians leading 2-1.
Chelsea went on to win 3-2 to book automatic qualification for the Round of 16.
Small Can Be Beautiful Too
The big wins always grab the headlines but landing any type of acca deserves recognition.
One bet365 customer on X @kieranldavies shared details of a £7.29 Bet Builder + that earned them £74.14.
It was a creative coupon too with some coolly calculated selections covering six games.
Bodo/Glimt goalkeeper Nikita Hakin was backed to make over 5.5 saves away at Atletico Madrid.
Backing Kylian Mbappe to have over 1.5 shots on target against Benfica also paid off, despite Real’s defeat.
Gone In 120 Seconds
There were plenty of hard-luck stories, with many accas falling within the opening minutes of games.
Most would be hard-pushed to beat X account Corner City Tips.
They shared details of a huge £1k bet with Paddy Power that could have potentially returned £2,625.
The bet was that no goals would be scored in the first three minutes of any of the 18 games being played.
It was perfect timing then for Arsenal’s Viktor Gyokeres to suddenly discover his goalscoring boots.
The £55-million summer signing put the Gunners 1-0 up against Kazakh minnows Kairat Almaty within two minutes.
It sparked a flurry of replies to the X account.
One user stated: “£1000 gone in 120 seconds, my head would be on MARS.”
Arsenal’s 3-2 win saw them top the 36-team group phase.
The Gunners are now 7/2 favourites to win the competition in the latest Champions League betting odds.
