There's been an awful lot of stories doing the rounds this year of people betting on Leicester at the ludicrous odds of 5000/1. Then those stories became a bit passé and it moved on to the unfortunate individuals who did the smart thing and cashed out of an un-winnable bet for a small profit. And then came Tom Hanks and, as distinguished a man as he is, the shark was firmly jumped on the Leicester betting stories.
But then came something we could believe in. The issue on all these previous stories is that you just don't know if you fully buy it. The bookmaker could be telling porkies for marketing purposes, the bettor in question could be telling porkies because they want a fleeting moment of the Leicester fairytale to rub off on them or it could be all legit and we can be happy or sad for them depending on whether it's a case of fortune or misfortune.
One account that we can surely believe however comes from the editor-in-chief of Bloomberg News. The renowned John Micklethwait (great name) has this week penned a column looking at the economic realities of Leicester's incredible story. To begin the column, he made this admission.
For around 20 years, every August I have bet 20 pounds on Leicester City to win their league. The wall my office at The Economist in London was festooned with the resulting betting stubs, to be mocked by my colleagues who followed more successful teams. True, Leicester did once finish second -- but that was back in the 1928-29 season; their main battle in my lifetime has been to avoid relegation, a struggle they have lost seven times.
Last summer, having moved to New York to work for Bloomberg, I missed making my routine bet; the odds being offered on Leicester winning the title were 5,000-1, but, somewhere deep down, I assumed it was 20 pounds ($29) saved.
So in leaving his job as editor of the Economist, Micklethwait moved to New York, saved £20 and cost himself £100,000 all in one go. We'd like to think that the editor-in-chief of Bloomberg really doesn't need to lie about something like that to get attention. However, given how absolutely euphoric you'd surely feel to be a Leicester fan at the moment, we sincerely hope Micklethwait simply couldn't care less about the fact that he only gains emotionally as opposed to financially from Leicester's soon to be triumph.
You can read the rest of Micklethwait's column here.
