Oxfam could win £100,000 at Wimbledon from legacy donor's bet

If Roger Federer wins Wimbledon this month then Oxfam will win £100,000 from a bet placed by a man who left his estate to the charity.

Nicholas Newlife from Kidlington, Oxfordshire, placed a series of bets with bookmakers William Hill between 2000 and 2005, all related to the future achievements of tennis stars Roger Federer and Andy Roddick, and cricketer Ramnaresh Sarwan. If the bets are all successful, they will generate more than a third of a million pounds for the charity over the next ten years.

Mr Newlife left his entire estate to Oxfam when he died in February 2009, aged 69. The estate included the outcomes of the series of outstanding bets he had placed.

The first bet, £250 on Roger Federer to win at least 14 grand slam titles before 2020 at 66/1, won £16,750 for Oxfam and was claimed in March 2010.

Cathy Ferrier, Fundraising and Supporter Marketing Director at Oxfam, said: "We're enormously grateful to Mr Newlife for his generous gift, and will be keeping a close eye on Wimbledon this year as a result".

Graham Sharpe, Media Relations Director at William Hill, said: "Mr Newlife was clearly a very shrewd sporting gambler whose early identification of potential superstars won tens of thousands of pounds for himself while he was still alive - but to ensure that a respected charity would benefit from any bets which came to fruition after his death makes him unprecedented in my thirty year experience of the betting industry".

The outstanding bets placed by Mr Newlife that could still come off are:

* £1,520 on Federer to win the Wimbledon men’s singles at least seven times before 2020 at 66/1: this would win £101,840 for Oxfam this summer if he comes out on top at this summer's Wimbledon.

* £1,000 on Andy Roddick to win at least seven grand slam singles titles before 2020 at 33/1: this would win £34,000 for Oxfam.

* £750 on Andy Roddick to win at least 10 grand slam singles titles before 2020 at 100/1: this would win £75,075 for Oxfam.

* £350 on Ramnaresh Sarwan to make over 7,000 test match runs by end of 2019 at 50/1: this would win £17,850.

* £300 on Ramnaresh Sarwan to make more than 8,000 test match runs by end of 2019 at 100/1: this would win £30,300.

* £250 on Ramnaresh Sarwan to make more than 9,000 test match runs by end of 2019 at 250/1: this would win £62,750.

www.oxfam.org.uk

Photo: toga on Flickr.com

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