A new Betfair big bets record has been set by a Rugby punter with the Australian branch of Betfair who has bet the kitchen sink on New Zealand to win the 2007 Rugby World Cup on Betfair the number one betting exchange and could well be one of the largest in sports betting history.

The bet is reportedly one of 5 million Australian dollars at the betfair price of 1.71 which is an odds on bet so the return would be a profit of 3,550,000 Australian dollars should New Zealand do the business over the next couple of weeks.

The most interesting thing about this bet is that it is only due to betfair that such a large bet could get place as bookmakers would shy away from such a liablility but as this is a person to person exchange and this market is so liquid he managed to get his bet on but he will be paying around 2-3% of his winnings in comission as he is obviously a large punter and will be on the lower rate of comission so thats a whopping 100,000 Australian dollars profit to the betting exchange not bad you might say, plus all the publicity this gets for the betfair organisation.

Betfair refused to discuss the gambler’s identity or nationality, but said it was one of the biggest bets ever placed through the site.

Kiwi gamblers, possibly mindful of their team’s past cup calamities, have been much more restrained.

TAB head bookie Paul Lally said the biggest bet received on the All Blacks so far was $100,000 - at the shorter odds of $1.55

Source: The Dominion Post