Bookmakers receive ‘bizarre’ croc attack bet request

Bosses at William Hill had to look twice when they received an email from someone wanting to bet with odds at 500/1 that their friend be involved in a crocodile attack.

The email arrived following a story on Rochdale Online about Pennine Acute Trust Cadet Tutor Craig Harrison who is accompanying two college students on a trip to Uganda.

http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/65529/health-cadets-head-to-uganda

Somebody, understood to be a friend of Mr Harrison’s, whose name has not been revealed, contacted William Hill with the following request:

I wish to know if you will take a bet with odds at 500/1 for Craig to be involved in a crocodile attack culminating in physical harm, blood loss, or even death. I am meaning a totally wild untamed undomesticated crocodile. Highly unlikely, I know, but I would like to make a bet if this is possible.

William Hill replied, asking why the punter wanted to make such a bet. In which the reply was “for my amusement.” 

Staff were so surprised by the request that they have placed it at number one in their file of bizarre bet requests. 

Graham Sharpe, Media Relations Director for William Hill, said: “With our reputation for taking a bet on almost anything – from the Loch Ness Monster to UFOs – we often get bet requests which surprise even us.

“However, to be asked for odds that someone’s friend will be savaged by a crocodile was so extreme that we have had to re-jig our top ten file of bizarre bet requests, and insert this one at number one – even above the bet we did take from a 60-year-old customer that when he reaches the age of 100 he will father a child by the, er, traditional method. If he does he will win £500,000 from his £50 wager at odds of 10,000/1.”

Mr Harrison was unavailable for contact at the time of publication.