You Bet Tennis Is The New Football

While the World Cup took a short break, high-rolling gamblers turned their attentions to Wimbledon and William Hill took over one million pounds on the Federer - Henman match alone, with one client staking £84,000 on Federer at 1/100 when he led by two sets to love. His profit was £840.

The same gambler, based in the North East of the country, was also successful with bets of £163,000 on another game, backing Ivan Ljubicic to defeat Lopez. He placed three bets during the match, ending up with a profit of around £7000.

"Wimbledon is set to produce a record betting turnover of up to £75 million industry wide, eclipsing last year's £50m" said William Hill's spokesman Graham Sharpe.

"We have already taken a bet of £30,000 for Sharapova to win the Ladies tournament, £20,000 for Federer at 1/2, £12,000 on Hewitt at 14/1 and £8000 on Nadal at 9/1. Tennis betting has been serving up a tremendous performance recently and comfortably outstrips betting turnover on the likes of cricket, rugby and golf."

Another William Hill client has staked £14,000 on Andy Murray to win his 2nd Round match on Thursday afternoon at odds of 2/7.