Leicester City, the Unlikeliest of Winners
Much to everyone’s disbelief, the Leicester City soccer club was crowned the champion of the English Premier League Monday.
The team’s chances last summer were small, to say the very least. Back then, William Hill, a British gambling group, place the likelihood of this Foxes of Leicester City, a fledgling team based two hours north of London, of winning at 5,000-to-1. Essentially, the group had a .0002 percentage chance of being the best team in the league of 20. Except for the 25 individuals who bet a combined total of just $243 on the team during William Hill, no one expected this from Leicester City.
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Here’s some perspective: William Hill once place the chances of Elvis being found alive and well at 2,000-to-1 and also an acknowledgment by the U.S. authorities that the first moon landing was faked at 500-to-1.
And some more perspective, from ESPN:
Not only did the Foxes have a 13-game winless run last season, they were just six points out of being relegated to a lower level of competition. Leicester City wasn’t even in the Premier League 2 years back. The club earned marketing to England’s top soccer league starting in the 2014-15 season for the first time in ten decades.
In the sphere of overused sports tropes, announcing a victory”among the greatest upsets ever” is a frequent sin. But in this circumstance, this is the biggest upset in modern sports history.
Read more here: http://jikoobelt.com/adv03/?p=14208