William Hill scrap weight-loss incentive after losing out

HERE’S a specialised novelty bet we’re not expecting to see in Australia anytime soon.

William Hill has scrapped a popular weight-loss incentive promotion after the English bookmaker was forced to pay out tens of thousands of pounds to punters who shed their weight.

Introduced in the 1990s, William Hill’s retail outlets took hundreds of weight-loss bets per year. The prospective punter enters the store asking to take on the bookie and William Hill would provide the parameters: which entailed the amount of weight to lose, the time frame and the odds.

The kilo-shedding promotion has been put on the back-burner by William Hill however, after punters cleaned up. William Hill spokesperson Rupert Adams said the promotion ‘wasn’t making economic sense’ and will now only extend to long-time company customers.

“We’ve paid out pounds and pounds to people losing pounds and pounds.” Adams said.

“But in future only heavy gamblers who have previously lost on the weight loss market with us will be permitted to do diet bets.

“The bet’s been very popular but it seems that people needing to lose weight aren’t the big long-shots we once thought.”

Clearly the bookmaker underestimated the willpower of their clients, and

Among the biggest winners was Gary Connell of Partick, Glasgow, backed himself to lose 45kg with a £25 stake at odds of 100/1, while call centre worker Peter Heeks, 26, from Darwen, Lancs, went from 130kg to 88kg. Heeks had £100 bet on himself at odds of 100/1.

It is fair to say William Hill will not be sponsoring the next season of The Biggest Loser after paying out some lopsided wagers.

Adams said that the bookmaker was happy to have “done our bit” in helping fight the obesity epidemic but added: “As all dieters know, there is a time when enough is enough.”