Punter bets $94k on Uruguay v England and wins

Uruguay's Luis Suarez celebrates scoring his side's second goal. Photo / AP

When Luis Suarez scored the second goal for Uruguay to win 2-1 over England at the Fifa World Cup yesterday, the biggest sigh of relief may have come from a New Zealand punter.

"We had a $94,000 bet on the match not to be a draw at odds of $1.30," TAB spokeswoman Kate Gourdie said.

"A few anxious moments for that customer late on in the game after England equalised."

Suarez, who plays his football with Liverpool, cancelled out Wayne Rooney's first World Cup finals goal five minutes from time, practically ending England's cup dreams.

The loss for Roy Hodgson's team was also a loss for 3800 punters who put a total of $134,000 in head-to-head bets for an England victory.

TAB spokeswoman said the turnover for the game was $550,000, which was the highest for yesterday but Australia v Netherlands remained the biggest match with a turnover of $651,000.

One lucky punter, who invested $40 on a four-leg multi bet, picking who would lead at halftime and fulltime in four games, made $113,725 at odds of 2844 to 1.

"There has been twice a many bets on the first 23 matches this time around than there was on the 2010 World Cup in South Africa," Ms Gourdie said.

Punter Andrew Davies, who correctly picked Uruguay to beat England yesterday, is predicting further upsets and is betting on a Costa Rica win over Italy.

"The great thing about football is that the better team doesn't always win and this has been a World Cup of upsets," he said.

"Who would have thought world champions Spain would be the first to leave the tournament, and I think the upsets will continue, especially in the group stages."