Man Spends Year Slimming Down to Win £2,500 Bet

If you need some extra motivation to get rid of the Christmas bulge and put a firm end to the festive indulgence, then you may want to take a leaf out of Patrick Barnes’ book. According to Mail Online, the Birmingham local, who stepped on the scales to a weight of just over 21 stone in January 2014, placed a bet with William Hill Sports that he would lose five stone by the end of the year.

Shortly after his marriage to girlfriend Rebecca, followed by a dream honeymoon in the betting mecca of Las Vegas, Barnes began to pile on the pounds. To help inspire him to lose weight, he placed a £100 wager before starting a diet, which the bookmaker gladly accepted. Patrick revealed he was inspired to place the bet by a story in the newspaper in which someone else had done a similar thing, and won.

Patrick had a couple of tricks hidden up his sleeve. As he explained:

"It was all about exercise and healthy eating. But my secret weapon was playing darts – with weight loss they always say take up a sport, but I used the dartboard to keep me moving in the evenings. It keeps you walking about at night when you are not playing squash or other things. It also helps take your mind off food as you are counting the dart score and not the calories."

William Hill Sports was glad to back the ambitious bet. The company takes roughly 100 weight loss wagers every year, but Patrick’s large win puts him in the top ten all-time best weight shedders. Rupert Adams, a spokesman for William Hill, revealed how they were chuffed for the Brummie weight-watcher when they found out:

"When he called to say he had succeeded we were flabbergasted. This is an amazing achievement and he deserves his winnings. We obviously reckoned he was a 25-1 shot, but he's lightened our wallets with his determination."

If you would like to pile on the right sort of pounds like Patrick, why not visit William Hill Sports today?