Arsenal fan turns 82p bet into £4,000 win after refusing to bet on his own team

An Arsenal fan turned his pennies into pounds – and then some – after refusing to bet on his own team to win.

Dean Lobendhan, 42, won big after he guessed the correct result for 12 football games, on a 5,000-to-one bet.

A hardcore Gunners fan, the Londoner refused to place a bet on his own team, and instead randomly picked out the other sides.

Dean, who works at sports centre in Redbridge, put his bet on Notts County, Bradford City, Accrington Stanley, Northampton Town, Huddersfield Town, Real Madrid, Burnley, Port Vale, Juventus FC, Bayer Leverkusen, Borussia Mönchengladbach and Bayern Munich.

He said he had completely forgotten about the loose change he had put down, until two days later when he opened his betting profile to discover £4,062.14 waiting for him in his account.

‘I never bet on my own team. I’d never thought I’d win,’ Dean said.

‘I’m loving it.’

Dean is planning to put his winnings towards celebrating Christmas with his loved ones and putting it towards his business selling tea on eBay.

The 42-year-old said he was not a regular better, and just places small bets occasionally.

‘The first bet on the horse was 28-to-one. The football bet was 5,000-to-one.

‘I thought ‘if I lose, it’s not the end of the world.’

Dean had made £6.60 on the bet with the horse, and his ‘intuition’ told him to check what he had won on the football.

”I looked at the corner and it said just under £4,100.

‘I thought ‘wow’.’

Dean isn’t the only one to win big on a whim lately. Pumpkin seller Roy Story, from North Carolina, cashed in a £115,000 lottery prize after using the $10 someone had given him for his produce.

‘I didn’t have my glasses on,’ he said. ‘I thought it won $1,000.’

Story claimed his $150,000 prize at the lottery headquarters later that same day. After state and federal tax withholdings, he took home $107,251, or around £82,213.

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