167 People Bet That Luis Suarez Would Bite Someone During the World Cup

Today, during a tense and hard-fought World Cup match between Italy and Uruguay, Uruguay's Luis Suarez bit Italy's Giorgio Chiellini. This isn't Suarez's first taste of a player. Here's a brief history of Suarez biting other soccer players:

Suarez has twice been suspended from his professional teams for biting incidents. Considering Suarez's history, it only seemed logical that a betting website would offer the opportunity to gamble on whether or not Suarez would chomp down on a competitor at the World Cup.

As it turns out, the odds were pretty long. Betsson, a gambling website based in Malta, offered the proposition bet at 175-1 odds. One gambler, Thomas Syverson of Trondheim, Norway, put $5.25 on Suarez's biting someone, and walked away with a cool $916. Betsson's sportsbook manager, Andreas Bardun, told ESPN a total 167 gamblers bet on the bite. The biggest winner was also a Norwegian, who took home $3,300.

Gambling does have a history of odd bets, especially when it comes to the Superbowl, when gamblers bet on everything from then length of the national anthem to the color of the Gatorade shower given to the winning coach. But this is probably the first time a bet was placed on biting. And almost definitely the first time it paid off.

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As for Suarez himself: He doesn't see what the fuss is about. In post-game interviews, he said Chiellini "bumped into me with his shoulder" and that "There are things that happen on the pitch and you should not make such a big deal out of them."

This article was originally published at http://www.thewire.com/global/2014/06/167-bet-luis-suarez-would-bite-someone-during-the-world-cup/373343/

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