Battle of the Bookies – Victor Chandler Wins £1m Man United Bet from Fred Done

It is fair to say that a lot of bookmakers tend to enjoy a flutter. They love it the most when you have a flutter with them and you lose, meaning that they get to take your money, but many of them also got into the trade in the first place because of their own proclivity for placing a wager or two. As a result, putting bookies together is often likely to end in one of them suggesting a bet to the other one. In 2005, that is almost exactly what happened, with Fred Done convinced that Manchester United would finish about Chelsea in the Premier League and offering other bookies a £1 million bet to that effect, which Victor Chandler eventually took up.

Fred Done Has Form for Losing Money on United

Picture the scene: it is 1998 and Manchester United are leading Arsenal in the title race. A 1-0 win for the Red Devils put them 12 points clear of the Gunners, meaning that Fred Done, the owner of the bookmaker Betfred and a lifelong Man United supporter, becomes convinced that his beloved team have done enough to secure their fourth top-flight title in five years. The only time that they missed out on the title was when Blackburn Rovers pipped them to it by a single point at the conclusion of the 1994-1995 campaign, with Done firmly of the belief that that wouldn’t happen again, so he paid out early on bets on a Red Devils title win.

Unfortunately for the Betfred owner, Arsenal won all three of their games in hand on United, as well as defeated the Red Devils when the two teams faced each other. It was enough to see Arsenal win the title by a single point, just as Blackburn had done three years before. Done didn’t learn his lesson, also paying out early on a United title win at the end of the 2011-2012 campaign when they ended up losing out to city rivals Manchester City on goal difference. Not that he knew that was going to happen in 2005, of course, but it is at least a bit of evidence that the bookmaker had previous when it came to his beloved Man United.

Offering a Million Pound Bet

During the 2004-2005 season, Fred Done was all but convinced that Manchester United would finish above Chelsea in the league table. Chelsea, of course, had recently been bought by Roman Abramovich, with the Russian pumping huge sums of money into the London club in order to get it to compete at the top of the Premier League. At the conclusion of the 2003-2004 campaign, having seen the club finish in second place behind Arsenal and with the Red Devils in third, Abramovich decided it was time to sack manager Claudio Ranieri and appoint a talented young manager who had just won the Champions League with Porto.

That fresh-faced manager was José Mourinho, the Portuguese football brain who arrived in England and declared himself to be the ‘special one’. Perhaps it was the fact that he hadn’t managed in England before that made Done so convinced that United would finish ahead of the Blues in the final league table. Whatever the logic was, he decided to offer a bet of £1 million to fellow high-rollers that that is exactly what would happen. Perhaps somewhat unsurprisingly, none were willing to take him up on the offer initially, not happy to put £1 million of their own money on the line in the even money bet that was on the table.

Victor Chandler Liked the Bet

At least, no one was willing to take him up on the offer until Chelsea-supporting bookmaker, Victor Chandler, decided that he would. Evidently happy enough with the work he’d seen from José Mourinho in pre-season and the signings that the Portuguese manager had made with Roman Abramovich’s money, Chandler and Done spoke on the phone and Chandler confirmed that he would take up the bet on the even money basis that Done had offered. For his part, Done was hoping that the bet would see him entered into the Guinness Book of Records, believing that it was the largest ever made at the time that he made it.

Vowing to give the money to charity if he won, Done knew that making it, just like paying out early on United seven years earlier, would see plenty of people using his bookmakers as a result of the publicity. At the time, the firm had 500 shops and an annual turnover of in excess of £600 million. In the years that followed, the firm would grow to the point that it had nearly 2,000 shops and Done himself would be worth more than a billion pound, so his gamble could be said to have paid off. That he knew that when he made it, of course. He will have genuinely hoped that United would finish higher than Chelsea and he could give the winnings to charity.

Paying Out

In the end, José Mourinho turned Chelsea into a winning machine, with the Blues losing just one game all season in the Premier League. United, meanwhile, lost five, finishing 18 points off the Stamford Bridge outfit, who won the league with 95 points. It would have been a losing bet if Done had offered it again the following season too, with Chelsea defending the title with an eight point gap to the Red Devils.

Even so, Done wasn’t bitter about his loss, in spite of how huge it was. Instead, he went into the Victor Chandler offices with a smile on his face, presenting his fellow bookmaker with a cheque for the full amount. Speaking about the matter he said:

We had no written contract over this. It was just over the phone. I have absolutely no doubt that if I had won the bet, that it would have been honoured by Victor. I’m not sorry. I will live to fight another day. It’s a lot of money to most people and they are probably thinking I’m crazy. But risk is the nature of my business and sometimes things go against you.

Chandler was, as Done described him, ‘brave enough to take it on’, but it isn’t clear whether the £1 million went into his personal bank account or ended up being given to charity as Done had promised to do. He won, so he won’t have minded either way.