While Leicester was a high-profile, high-value futures bet that offered multiple hedging opportunities, hedging is more straightforward in playoffs or an elimination tournament when there are binary outcomes. While hitting a 5,000-1 futures bet can be life-changing, it may also have been unnerving to sit through those spring months, knowing it could turn to nothing. This works as insurance in case Leicester fell apart. In this scenario, a bettor could have locked in guaranteed profit if they bet on Leicester’s main contenders in the final stretch of the season.
If they collapsed and only finished second or third, that $5 would have turned into nothing. A $5 bet on Leicester would have turned into $25,000. The Foxes were 5,000-1 to win the Premier League before the season started.Īs Leicester raced to the league lead, those 5,000-1 odds would have started to seem like a legitimate possibility. In recent years, one of the more famous futures bets is the 2015-16 Leicester City team that won the English Premier League in a shock result.
