Last weekend’s mystery totescoop6 winner has been found after Betfred boss Fred Done launched a nationwide appeal to try and find the owner of a betting slip which was worth £394,487.
Young mum Amber Galligan, 22, placed the £2 bet on the Scoop6 in a Betfred shop in Benwell, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne for her father who has arthritis. Thomas Galligan, 53, plays the bet regularly but didn’t realise that his initial selection – Vocational in the 2.25 at Ayr – was a non-runner and that this meant his pick then switched to the unnamed favourite – 7/2 jolly Angels Will Fall – which eventually won the race.
The pair became the first Scoop6 winners in the history of the bet not to come forward and failed to register in time to play for the extra £251,966 in the bonus fund but eagle-eyed shop staff spotted Amber when she returned to the shop on Saturday evening to place another bet.
“I was at the counter when the assistant told me they’d been looking for me and I knew he wasn’t joking as he was so deadly serious,” said Amber. “When he first told me that the bet had won I thought it was the place part and might have been a few hundred pounds, not hundreds of thousands of pounds. I was very shocked and couldn’t believe what he was telling me, but my dad’s been a fantastic father to us and deserves a change of luck. We live in a small two bedroomed council flat and my dad has awful arthritis and sleeps on the sofa. He’s going to buy a bigger house with the winnings and take us all on holiday. It will change all our lives for the better.”
Former builder’s labourer Thomas – a father of four who originally hails from Leith, near Edinburgh – said: “Amber is my angel – she and all my kids and grandkids mean the world to me. I don’t bet during the week, but do the Scoop6 when I can afford it on a Saturday. I thought my first horse Vocational had got beat and then I watched as the next five won – I knew there were 568 tickets going into the last race at Royal Ascot and only one on Dandy Boy, but I never realised I was the winner as I thought I was out in leg one. I’ve had years of pain and operations with arthritis in my legs and Amber and my son Michael pop down to the shop to place my Saturday bet. Our first priority with the win will be to buy a bigger place to live and I also want to take them all on the holiday of a lifetime. We don’t really do holidays as we have just enough to get by, so I can’t remember the last time we went on one – if ever.”
Betfred boss Fred Done was delighted to hear that Thomas Galligan had finally been found and was quick to praise his shop staff for their hard work. “We’re all delighted that we’ve finally found Thomas after a nationwide search as the amount he’s landed really will change his life for the better. I’d like to thank my shop staff and area managers for being so alert otherwise Thomas may still not know that he was sitting on a fortune.”
This weekend’s Scoop6 could be worth up to £500,000 after both the win and bonus fund rolled over on Saturday. There is currently £62,314 in the win fund and £278,202 in the bonus fund.
Beat the rush and open an account with Totesport bookmakers, the home of the Scoop6. They currently have a great promotion running: – Sign up for a free Totesport betting account, using the links on this page, and get a £10 Free Bet! Full details of this offer can be found on the Totesport site.
Good luck everyone. Remember to return to Scoop6.co.uk on Saturday for live updates as the Scoop6 runs and to chat with other Scoop6 players.