Punter Puts $500,000 on Another Cats Flag

Monday March 31, 2008

A punter has plunged a record $500,000 on the Cats to win this year's AFL premiership.

Darwin Sportsbet today revealed that the bet, which is the largest it has ever taken on the AFL premiership, was placed before round one at a price of $3.30.

A bet of $40,000 was also placed on Geelong this week to win the flag at $2.80, prompting the Cats' premiership odds to be reduced to $2.70.

Darwin Sportsbet is also expected at 2pm today to list record odds for Geelong's game against Melbourne at Skilled Stadium this Sunday.

It is understood Melbourne will be priced at $34 to beat Geelong in head-to-head betting on the match, with Geelong to pay a record low $1.01.

The only previous time that Darwin Sportsbet has offered those odds on an AFL match was back in 1996 when West Coast Eagles played Fiztroy in Western Australia, a match that West Coast eventually won by 11 goals.

Darwin Sportsbet is tipped to give Melbourne about 75 points start in this week's game.

Lasseters Sportsbook has given Melbourne 73 points start for the clash and has listed the Cats at $1.03 in head-to-head betting with the Demons at $13.00.

There's a lot of talk in Australian Rules circles about this being a record but my memory stretches back to when Fitzroy and Sydney were getting towelled up every week, says Lasseters Gerard Daffy.

We originally put the Demons at plus 80 and a half last night but punters keenly jumped into that straight away and I'm expecting more money to come for them in the next 24 hours."