5000/1: How Leicester City Beat the Odds

On the 2nd of May 2016, Leicester City F.C. managed to win the English Premier League after Tottenham Hotspur failed to beat Chelsea. This victory completed the fastest seven-year rise to the title except for Ipswich Town back in 1962 and with todays standards of football Leicester faced far more uneven top tier teams.

At the beginning of the football season Leicester to win the league was considered to be so unlikely that the British betting companies Ladbrokes and William Hill offered odds of 5,000-1. Neither bookmakers had ever paid out on such high odd’s and the lifting of the trophy by Leicester resulted in the largest bookmaking payout in British sporting history with the total being £25 million.

To put this into perspective for our American friends out there this win is equivalent to a Triple-A minor league baseball team moving up to the Major Leagues and then, a year later, winning the World Series.

This film examines all that made the imaginable possible. Here is a list of things that were considered more likely than Leicester winning the league:

  1. David Moyes to be an X Factor judge: 2500/1
  2. Arsenal to sack Arsene Wenger and install Piers Morgan as boss: 2500/1
  3. David Cameron to replace Tim Sherwood as Aston Villa manager: 2500/1
  4. Claudio Ranieri to be next England manager: 2000/1
  5. Sir Alex Ferguson to win Strictly Come Dancing: 1000/1
  6. Hugh Hefner to admit he’s a virgin: 1000/1
  7. Jose Mourinho to quit Chelsea and go on I’m A Celebrity: 1000/1
  8. David Beckham to become Man City manager: 750/1
  9. Tyson Fury to announce he is an atheist: 750/1
  10. Simon Cowell to be next Prime Minister: 500/1
  11. Andy Murray to name his first born Novak: 500/1

 

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