One lucky gambler over the weekend scooped over half a million pounds from an 86p bet. The accumulator bet with William Hill included 19 selections and came down to the 87th minute with Liverpool scoring a late winner against Chelsea.

The winner took £585,143.24 after the winning result. Prior to the final game he already had over £152k from his first 18 selections riding on the Liverpool win.

"We cannot recall any punter winning either this much on an accumulator, or landing such stratospheric odds- even though he wasn't a Liverpool fan before, he tells us he is now!" said Graham Sharpe, a William Hill spokesman.

"Football punters were already celebrating the biggest winning weekend in living memory as all the best fancied teams in the Premier League, Championship, Leagues One & Two, Blue Square, SPL and William Hill Scottish Cup turned out be winners", added Sharpe.

"This late winner in the final game of the weekend left us feeling about as cheerful as under-pressure Chelsea boss Andre Villas Boas. The weekend as a whole was football betting's equivalent of racing's Dettori day in 1996, when Frankie rode all seven winners at Ascot, costing the industry almost £50million.

Punters backing long-odds accumulative bets like the one described here were the biggest winners, most of them collecting four and five figure sums from modest stakes."

The gambler, who only ever bets to a 1 euro stake has confirmed that he is now a Liverpool fan!