Some people check the odds each day, staying with one eye constantly on the Betway live sports betting app on their phones. Others only bet on special occasions, as part of a ritual or simply for fun rather than as a way of life or a regular activity.

These people don't bet to win - some simply experiment with the mysterious world of gambling, others simply do it because "why not". This makes their wins all the more sensational - both for them and the rest of the world.

One of these occasional punters, a British man who visits the Cheltenham Festival each year to enjoy the races and place an occasional bet. This year, the on-site Tote Placepot - the betting pool that allows punters to pick one placed horse in every race - had an unusually high premium: £900,000 (around ZAR16.5 million). And this year, the pool was shared by just 10.5 winning units - a dividend of £91,283.10 for each pound bet.

Our punter selected just one horse in each of the races of the opening day, placing a total of £2 on his accumulator. At the end of the day, 2 of the 10.5 winning units were his, netting him a hefty £182,567.80 (ZAR 3.3 million) win. Betting on horse racing is not an exact science - there is a great number of factors that can influence the outcome of every race. Sometimes, it's the favorite that wins, as expected, and sometimes, surprising things can happen.

The unpredictable nature makes horse racing such an enjoyable activity. Those who bet on horse racing online miss out on all the excitement. This was the case of an online bettor from Leicester who placed a £19 accumulator bet on the races of the Punchestown racecourse in Ireland. He placed his bets at a local internet bookmaker then went out with his friends. Only when he got home in the morning and checked the results he found out that he won one of the biggest ever sums in the bookmaker's history: £823,000 (over ZAR15 million). This was the win of a lifetime, a truly life-changing event, as the unnamed punter later told the press.

The first and only horse to win two Grant Nationals back to back was Red Rum in 1973 and 1974. Or better said, he was the only horse to win two Grand Nationals back to back until this year when his performance was matched by the Irish-bred thoroughbred Tiger Roll - and this was really bad news for the bookmakers. Tiger Roll has won the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase in March, making him the most-backed horse at the Grand National - more than 82% of all the bets placed at the event were placed on him. His spectacular win - he beat the second-place Magic of Light by more than two lengths - reportedly cost bookies around £200 million.