The £1 Million Per Hour World Cup Gamble

Bookmakers William Hill say that gamblers having a flutter on the World Cup will wager over one million pounds during every hour of the tournament on the way to a record-breaking one billion pound betting bonanza.

"The World Cup will shatter every known betting record, with British bookmakers alone taking over £1 billion - double the turnover from the 2002 event and resulting in customers staking £1.3million every hour of the tournament" said William Hill spokesman Graham Sharpe.

And with a considerable percentage of that money being bet on England, the bookies fear that a World Cup triumph for Sven's men will leave them badly out of pocket.

"If England go all the way we will be cheering patriotically with the fans but nursing badly bruised wallets as we face a substantial seven figure payout already which can only increase the further they go in the competition."

And William Hill could take an early hit if the optimistic feeling about Wayne Rooney's chances of playing in the World Cup are relaised - William Hill now make him 8/13 to play and 6/5 not to - also offering 25/1 that he makes his first appearance actually in the World Cup Final.

"Punters have stayed consistently optimistic about Rooney's chances of making it to the World Cup and with bets of up to £1000 a time struck we are likely to pay out a six figure sum if he is passed fit", said Sharpe. "And some people are now expressing the theory that the whole Rooney saga has been an elaborate hoax and he has never really been unfit - we have seen a real gamble on him starting the opening game against Paraguay and have slashed the odds about that from 80/1 to 11/2."

Latest William Hill World Cup odds: 9/4 Brazil; 13/2 England; 8/1 Argentina; Germany; Italy; 12/1 France, Holland, Spain; 20/1 Portugal; 33 Czech Rep; 40 sweden; 50 Ivory Coast; Mexico; 66 Croatia, Ukraine; 80 USA; Australia; 100 Poland, Serbia; 150 Switzlnd; 200 Japan; Paraguay; S Korea; 250 Ghana; 400 Ecuador; Tunisia; 500 Togo; Iran; Costa Rica; 750 Angola; Saudi A; 1000 Trinidad-Tobago.