The Biggest Upsets in Sports
by Predictem.com Staff
A lot of the fun had from betting on sport comes from the fact that anything can happen, even if it shouldn’t. Gambling wouldn’t exist if the same thing happened over and over again and many try their luck with improbable outcomes to make some money. Some outcomes in sport are so unlikely that bookies are happy to offer long odds, something that can entice sports fans who reckon that something out of the ordinary may just happen. We’re going to take a look at four of the biggest sports upsets in history, along with some of the gamblers who benefited from a flutter on the impossible. The opportunity is there to emulate some of the biggest sporting shocks and take some winnings, they offer a fantastic range of online slot games and they are just waiting to be emptied, with great bonuses and big jackpots.
4. Buster Douglas Knocks out Mike Tyson
Iron Mike was in prime form and virtually unstoppable. He had ended his previous fight in under 2 minutes and at the time unbeaten in his professional career. Douglas was at one point 42-1 to win, bit managed to close Tyson’s eye early in the fight with some big targeted hits, rendering him virtually blind. Despite Douglas ending up on the canvas in the 8th, he got back up after a close 9 count and knocked Tyson out with a hellish uppercut followed by a combo in the tenth, marking the first time that Tyson had ever been knocked down in his entire career.
3. The Miracle on Ice
The USSR dominated Olympic ice hockey throughout the 1960s and 70s and had won six gold medals in their previous 7 tournaments. The USA faced the dominant Soviets in the 1980 Winter Olympics held at Lake Placid, New York, a game made even more competitive thanks to the tense rivalry between the two nations during what was the height of the cold war.
On home turf, the USA started off on the back foot, going down 2-1 in the 1st period before drawing level. The 2nd was even more tense, with the USSR pulling ahead to go 3-2 and starting to dominate the game. A penalty in the 3rd period helped team USA to pull one back to make it 3-3, before firing in the winner with 10 minutes to go. The win was likened to a Canadian college football team defeating the Pittsburgh Steelers, the dominant force in the NFL at the time, giving the win the ‘Miracle on Ice’ title.
2. South Africa vs. Japan
The 2015 World Cup in England saw Rugby powerhouse and 2007 cup winners South Africa facing minnows Japan in the group stages. As Japan had only ever won a single world cup game previously and with previous form that included a 145-17 loss to New Zealand, they were strongly tipped for defeat against an in-form South African side.
Brighton’s stadium was packed with almost 30,000 South Africans and a smattering of Japanese fans, but that didn’t stop the Cherry Blossoms from giving the South Africans a run for their money. The game was a close knit affair, with the South Africans only 3 points ahead in the dying moments of the game. However, with over 80 minutes played and 2 penalty options for the draw refused, Karne Hesketh drove over the line to win the game and put Rugby’s biggest upset since France beat New Zealand in 1999 into the history books.
1. Leicester Wins the Premier League
At the end of the 2014/15 season, Leicester narrowly avoided relegation after their first season back in the Premier League in over a decade. Manager Nigel Pearson had steered the club away from the drop zone in a great escape that went all the way to the final game, only to be replaced by Claudio Ranieri, a manager who had previously managed Chelsea in the Premier League but had lost his reputation after unsuccessful spells in Europe including a stint with the Greek national team, with highlights including a loss to the Faroe Islands.
Leicester’s team at the start of the 2015/16 season wasn’t great either, with lower French league nobodies N’Golo Kante and Riyad Mahrez making up the numbers with Championship quality players like Wes Morgan, Danny Simpson and Danny Drinkwater as first choices. Their key striker, Jamie Vardy, had played non-league football for the majority of his career.
Then, this rag-tag team of ‘mediocre’ players couldn’t stop winning. Whether home or away, top four or bottom three, Leicester were the Duracell Bunnies of the league. They won it with a game in hand, with some bookmakers offering up to 5000-1 on them winning at the start of the year. Many cashed in on ‘silly’ bets, often made at the pub, with some lucky gamblers picking up hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Non-league Vardy broke the consecutive goalscoring record, Mahrez was linked with everyone from Real Madrid to Barcelona, Kante got snapped up by Chelsea and Drinkwater got an England cap.
