Favourites and accumulator put William Hill on a loser

A Maltese villager who landed an amazing 683,783:1 punt on the football was the bane of the UK's biggest bookmaker today as William Hill bemoaned a nightmare November for betting margins.

Accumulator betting on large numbers of football fixtures - where the odds have been multiplied and all results must come in to take the cash - is usually a mug's game as at least one fails to follow the form book.

But the mystery 41-year-old punter placed a successful bet of 1 (83p) on an incredible 19 fixtures and landed it with three minutes to go after Glen Johnson's late winner for Liverpool against Chelsea on November 20.

Hills blamed the result for a fall in win margins from 19% to 17% over the fourth quarter in a dreadful weekend for the bookies as a host of favourites across all four divisions - including Arsenal, West Ham and Charlton - all won.

The losses added up to make it one of the worst months for the firm in more than a decade although it clawed some cash back in a run of shock results over Christmas, including relegation struggler Blackburn's win away at champions Manchester United.

Chief executive Ralph Topping said: "November was certainly a very good month for our football clients betting on small stake, high-return multiple bets."

Despite the blow, the firm expects operating profits in line with expectation at around £274 million for 2011.

This is slightly down on 2010, when the bookmaker was boosted by a World Cup gambling frenzy. Shares jumped 11.9p to 221.9p.