"It certainly made me sit up and take notice," Mr Stafford said. "I was driving to work [on Tuesday] and there were road works on Symonds St. It took me an hour and a quarter to get 3km. I was pretty much standing still when the call came through."
When Dave said he wanted to place a big bet on the All Blacks to lose, Mr Stafford wasn't expecting much - for most punters, two or three grand is a big bet. But when Dave indicated the bet would be six figures, the TAB stalwart of 18 years still assumed that would include a couple of zeros after the decimal point.
Placed at odds of $1.55, Dave's bet stands to earn him $71,500 if the All Blacks bomb out at the Cup.
The TAB's records show Dave's $130,000 bet is the largest ever placed on a Rugby World Cup.
Two $100,000 bets placed during the 2007 Cup - on England to defeat Tonga and South Africa to beat Argentina " were the biggest previous one-off Cup wagers.
The biggest bet against the All Blacks was $100,000 placed in 2010 on South Africa to win the Tri Nations. South Africa bombed and the bet was lost.
The biggest bet ever placed with the TAB was $225,000 on Brazil to beat Fifa World Cup minnows China. Brazil won, paying $1.08, returning just under $250,000.
The question for diehard NZ fans is what, if anything, can be read into the massive splash on the All Blacks to lose. Mr Stafford said the wager reflected a sense that the All Blacks - who retained the Bledisloe Cup a fortnight ago against arch-rivals Australia but lost the Rugby Championship a week earlier - were an ageing team who had struggled to win tournaments in the Northern Hemisphere.
The bet made a fair bit of sense. "We are going to get out of our group so he really has three chances to win - the quarter, the semi and the final.
"They are going to be three good teams and we will have come out of a soft pool, so you can see his rationale. If you divorce the emotional side of things, it is probably not the worst bet."
Apart from the size of the bet, Kiwis backing the opposition over the All Blacks isn't exactly uncommon. While the vast majority of NZ wagers will be placed on the All Blacks, plenty of people will opt to bet against them in what Mr Stafford calls a "happy bet" - so called because people will at least be happy to have won some money in the event of an All Blacks defeat.
Splashing out
• $130,000 bet by Auckland punter on All Blacks to lose the Rugby World Cup. It is paying $1.55, so he stands to make $71,500 in profit.
• Two $100,000 bets placed during the 2007 Cup - on England to beat Tonga and South Africa to beat Argentina - were the biggest previous one-off RWC wagers.
• The biggest previous bet against the All Blacks was $100,000 placed in 2010 on South Africa to win the Tri Nations. South Africa bombed and the bet was lost.
• The largest bet ever made on the All Blacks to win was $150,000, against Australia in 2008. At $1.48, the lucky punter walked away with $222,500.
• The biggest bet ever placed with the TAB was $225,000 on Brazil to beat China in the 2002 Fifa World Cup. Brazil won, paying $1.08, returning just under $250,000.
