Beware the banker bet - Stoke City sting punters at Betfair

The draw was backed at a high of 349/1 (350.00) in-running on Betfair before Stoke salvaged a point against Aston Villa on Sunday.

The Potters struck twice in the final three minutes to snatch a dramatic draw and put a massive dent in the betting accounts of punters who like to lay off "sure things" in order to cash in on "easy money".

Stiliyan Petrov's first Barclays Premier League goal for 11 months and a spectacular effort from John Carew had helped Villa take into a 2-0 lead.

As is usual the price on the draw drifted to stratospheric levels at in-running specialists Betfair, especially as time ticked away with no sign of a recovery.

But Ryan Shawcross reduced the arrears in the 87th minute and substitute Glenn Whelan equalised in injury-time for the visitors.

Job done for Stoke - and someone has a lot of explaining to do to the wife - as trying to hoover up a fiver cost him £1750 inside 3 minutes.

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Betfair signs 2,000,000th customer

Online betting group Betfair has just signed up customer number 2,000,000 this week just 18 months after signing their 1,000,000th.

The player was Bo Ohrman who is a 59-year-old Swedish civil servant resident in the town of Linkoping. Ohrman won his first bet, a wager on Wall Street finishing down on the day's trading.

"It's certainly more fun betting on Betfair than it is betting on the stock market at the moment!" said Bo.

Betfair is flying the betting Swede over to London for a VIP weekend in the capital, where he hopes to take in some Premier League football and a West End show.

Ohrman became 'Mr Two Million' just 20 months after Betfair broke through seven figures, a feat that took more than six years to achieve. Spokesmen say that the firm's customer base is becoming increasingly international as punters around the world take to the exchange model of betting.

David Yu, CEO of Betfair, said: "In a year when we won a Queen's Award for International Trade, it is fitting that Betfair's two millionth account comes from outside the U.K.

"Our international customers are already an essential part of our business and they are growing larger in number every day, so congratulations to Mr Ohrman -- he's joined the world's biggest online betting community."

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