350k a week?

[Beerpig]

I like a punt, always have, always will.
These days I tend to bet on Football, mostly the Premiership. I tend to do accumulators over 2.5 goals in the Saturday afternoon game and then maybe a bet on the 5.30 game when I go to the pub with some mates.
Anyhow one of my favourite bets is a penalty in a live game to be awarded/scored/missed. It’s a good bet because whatever bets you have on total goals etc and they are often doomed with 5 mins to go if you have backed over 2.5 and it is 1-0, and, well, there could always be a penalty.
I thought there would be three or more goals in Palace v Toon today and I was counting my money when Palace scored from a penalty with about 20 mins to go. I was about 25 quid up on the penalty bet with all that time to go but alas, I was watching the Sporting Index website waiting for the ‘suspended’ indicator that didn’t arrive. Never mind.

The three best and most entertaining teams in the Prem are Man City, Liverpool and Tottenham and two of them were playing this afternoon. So I went back to the bookies, retrieved my 25 quid and putting another 5 to it had a fiver on over 3.5 goals, a fiver on a penalty being awarded, a fiver on match action over 100, a fiver on a penalty being scored, a fiver on a penalty being missed and a fiver double on a penalty being scored AND missed. The bets were struck at William Hills of I went to the pub to watch the game.

For those Lemon Fools who don’t know what happened, Liverpool went 1-0 up in 3 minutes-then nothing else until about 13 mins to go. Such bad luck. Rats. I crumbled up my over 3.5 ticket and threw it in the fire in the pub. Then Tottenham equalised. 10 mins to go. Suddenly PENALTY TO TOTTENHAM! I can’t lose whatever happens. Harry Kane steps up and inexplicably chips it in to the goalkeeper’s arms. Penalty miss. Great.5 x 14 quid. I’m well up. Time for an extra celebratory pint. Then Liverpool scorch down the other end and go 2-1 up! Hang on BP, 2 mins to go- you could be in for 4 goals here if someone does something amazing!

We are now in injury time. ANOTHER penalty to Tottenham! Harry Kane stpes up. Come on Harry. Come on Harry!
And he scores! Wow! The double is up! Its up! 4 goals is up! And then when I check the stats for match action there is
4 goals = 40 points
2 pens awarded = 20 points
4 yellows = 12 points
10 corners =- 30 points
Total points 102. I am over the line.

I go back to William Hills and when they snatch the ticket off me I say at the same time ‘get that till open! And they do and after some delay in checking the stats, yours truly takes home over 350 quid!
Well, I was an hour late because I had an extra couple of beers to celebrate but my lateness was tempered by passing all the loot over (apart from 20 quid) to Mrs B.
Morals of the story.
(i) Any bet on a penalty awarded/scored/missed in a live game is always a great bet Do it. If only for a quid.
(ii) You never know what is going to happen in a premiership game
(iii) Well done Mr Kane for taking the second after you missed the first. Pressure or what?
(iv) These kids earning 300k a week? Disgraceful? No. Good on them. Really, good on them. They may live their lives back to front but just because most of us can’t earn the same, no need to knock them for it. They bring much happiness to many and they sustain a huge- if corrupt- industry.
(v) In case you’re wondering, yes, I lose overall far more than I put on but it’s my pastime like being in a golf club or paying for expensive fishing or whatever floats your boat –I don't do any of theses- and as The Blind Squirrel used to say on TMF- even a Blind Squirrel can find an acorn every now and then.

What a good day.
I'll have the same bets on t5omorrow’s Prem game and it will probably be 0-0
but cést la vie.
Off to bed now.
Cheers all.
Be lucky and happy.
but most of all happy

[Leothebear]

iv) These kids earning 300k a week? Disgraceful? No. Good on them. Really, good on them. They may live their lives back to front but just because most of us can’t earn the same, no need to knock them for it. They bring much happiness to many and they sustain a huge- if corrupt- industry.
(v) In case you’re wondering, yes, I lose overall far more than I put on but it’s my pastime like being in a golf club or paying for expensive fishing or whatever floats your boat –I don't do any of theses- and as The Blind Squirrel used to say on TMF- even a Blind Squirrel can find an acorn every now and then.

Sorry Guv but I just do not agree £300K a WEEK is right and fair. While I acknowledge their skill, it's simply NUTS that nurses care workers and many people work their guts out for at most 1/500th of that salary - it sucks. It is simply ridiculous where we put our values.
If footballers were paid 10% of that they'd still be very very wealthy.

[Lootman]

Neither penalty should have been allowed. Kane was offside for the first and Lamela put himself in a position to be kicked. Earlier Dele Ali had performed what might be the worst dive I have ever witnessed to try and win a fake penalty.

Spurs are just the worst. I hate them more than West Ham, and that's saying something.

it's simply NUTS that nurses care workers and many people work their guts out for at most 1/500th of that salary - it sucks. It is simply ridiculous where we put our values.If footballers were paid 10% of that they'd still be very very wealthy.

Nurses and care workers are replaceable like-for-like. Top footballers are not.

[Leothebear]

Nurses and care workers are replaceable like-for-like. Top footballers are not.

Agree. But isn't it a question of scale? Nurse - £300 .... footballer £30,000 Isn't that enough FFS?

[genou]

Nurses and care workers are replaceable like-for-like. Top footballers are not.

Agree. But isn't it a question of scale? Nurse - £300 .... footballer £30,000 Isn't that enough FFS?

It is precisely a question of scale. You don't get millions of people each willing to pay to watch a nurse at work. Once you get enough people willing to pay, the rewards rapidly increase.

[Lootman]

Nurses and care workers are replaceable like-for-like. Top footballers are not.

Agree. But isn't it a question of scale? Nurse - £300 .... footballer £30,000 Isn't that enough FFS?

I don't think that it is the business of anyone how much someone else gets paid other than the payer and the payee. It is a matter purely between the individual and the person who is paying them. If I want to pay you ten million a year to mow my lawn, so what?

[bungeejumper]

It is a matter purely between the individual and the person who is paying them. If I want to pay you ten million a year to mow my lawn, so what?

Never mind the niceties. When do I start?

BJ

[Clitheroekid]

Sorry Guv but I just do not agree £300K a WEEK is right and fair. While I acknowledge their skill, it's simply NUTS that nurses care workers and many people work their guts out for at most 1/500th of that salary - it sucks. It is simply ridiculous where we put our values.
If footballers were paid 10% of that they'd still be very very wealthy.

It's a pointless and irrelevant comparison. Premier League footballers aren't employees in any real sense, they're effectively self-employed entertainers, like actors or pop stars.

I don't hear anyone complaining about comedians - even unfunny ones - that earn millions a year or the fact that Adele earns £300,000 a week, neither do I ever hear comparisons between them and nurses.

And J K Rowling earned £1.3m a week last year, but that seems to be quite acceptable if the volume of moaning is anything to go by.

The fat cats that you should be aiming your ire at are the grossly overpaid directors of companies like Jeff Fairburn at Persimmon, pocketing over £100m for having effectively relieved the taxpayer of a large chunk of the £10bn doled out by a supposedly cash-strapped government to mainly well-off people under the disgraceful Help To Buy scheme.

At least footballers, film stars and the rest are providing enjoyment for millions of people. People like Fairbairn are, on the contrary, not only grossly overpaid but a serious threat to the nation's health and wellbeing by way of generated anger and increased blood pressure!