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Bets
Sep 8, 2006

Many English people like betting. They bet on horse races, and football matches. They bet in the National Lottery. They bet on who will win the next General Election, and whether it will snow on Christmas Day. To place a bet, you go to a bookmakers, or “bookies”. A bookmaker is a company that specialises in accepting bets. A bookmaker will tell you what “odds” they will give on a particular event – for example, odds of 12 to 1, or 3 to 1. So, if you bet on a horse to win a race at 12 to 1, and the horse does win the race, then the bookmaker will pay you 12 times your original bet.

And if the horse loses, of course, the bookmaker keeps the money which you bet. Bookmakers win more often than their customers. People say that no-one has ever met a poor bookmaker. So it is nice to be able to tell you this story.

Nine years ago, in 1997, a boy called Chris Kirkland was the goalkeeper for an under-15 football team in central England. His father, Eddie Kirkland, was convinced that his son would become a great footballer. He went to the bookmaker, Willliam Hill, and said that he wanted to bet that his son would some day play football for England. William Hill offered him odds of 100 to 1. Mr Kirkland placed a bet of £100.

On 17 August, England played Greece in a friendly football match. England won 4-0, and played fast, flowing football. Why didn’t they play like that in the World Cup, we all asked. And in goal was England’s new goalkeeper, Chris Kirkland. And the following morning, his Dad collected £10,000 from the bookmakers.