Waiter's £570,000 win gives bookie a bad month

A Maltese villager who landed an amazing 683,783/1 punt on the football was the bane of the UK's biggest bookmaker as William Hill bemoaned a nightmare November for betting margins.

Accumulator betting on large numbers of football fixtures – where all the selections need to win to land the cash – is usually a mug's game as at least one match fails to follow the form book. But the 41-year-old waiter placed a successful €1 bet on 19 fixtures and took home £570,000.

William Hill blamed the result for a fall in win margins from 19 per cent to 17 per cent over the fourth quarter, but despite the blow it still expects operating profits for 2011 to be in line with forecasts at about £274m.