$210k bet placed on ABs to win World Cup

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A confident punter has wagered nearly a quarter of a million dollars on the All Blacks taking out the Rugby World Cup next year.

The New Zealand team may have a history of choking when it counts in the tournament, but the cashed-up mystery gambler is clearly unfazed.

The £100,000 ($210,000) bet was placed with British betting agency Ladbrokes, causing the company to trim its odds to 4/5.

That means that someone who bets on the All Blacks to win, at these odds, won't even double their money if they confound history and come through victorious.

With New Zealand ranked as favourite, Ladbrokes has picked Australia as the next best bet, returning odds of 3/1. South Africa is rated 6/1.

Georgia, Japan, Namibia and Russia share the longest odds, all on 5000/1.

In 2007, during the last World Cup, one unlucky punter placed a A$5 million ($5.9 million) bet on New Zealand to win with the Australian company Betfair.

At the time, Betfair spokesman Hugh Taggart called it "an enormous bet".

"It's certainly one of the biggest individual bets we've seen on Betfair and one that would normally have bookies running for cover," he added.

As it turned out, the bookies were left laughing all the way to the bank.

The All Blacks, favourites then as well, crashed out ingloriously in the quarter-finals, victims of the French.