Big Freeze Lands North London Man £117,000 with £40 Football Bet

One lucky punter in London had an extra reason to cheer the current Big Freeze as a £40 bet landed him a stonking payout of £117,000.

The Paddy Power customer had been forced to look further afield for his weekend football betting as the arctic weather across the country wiped out the UK's football fixtures.

The anonymous man said: "I wouldn’t normally pick so many European fixtures in my weekend accumulator but what with the weather there was no real alternative. I didn’t really think it stood a snowball’s chance of coming home as my knowledge of European football isn’t brilliant."

The punter from Edmonton in North London staked a life-changing £40 weekend accumulator across a variety of European football matches and having seen thirteen of his fourteen selections come up trumps at the weekend was left sweating on Manchester City's match against Blackburn Rovers on Monday night.

Needing a win for City to land his bonanza bet Carlos Tevez's hat-trick in Manchester City's 4-1 win secured the payout and a great start to the bettor's 2010.