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Sport’s greatest underdog stories

Everybody loves an underdog, whether it’s football, boxing or even horse racing, there’s nothing better than seeing those big odds land the prize.

It’s for that reason we have taken a trip down memory lane and looked at four of the biggest underdog stories in recent years

Leicester City: Premier League champions

Leicester winning the Premier League changed sports betting for ever and it’s pretty safe to say we will never have a bigger priced winner of the Premier League ever again.

Narrowly avoiding relegation the season before, a managerial masterclass from Claudio Ranieri led the Foxes to the league title in 2015-16, beating Manchester City, Liverpool, et al.

A mammoth 5,000/1 outsider before a ball was kicked, in the end Leicester’s triumph wasn’t even close – winning the league by an astonishing 10 points. One of the greatest underdog stories of all time.

Mine That Bird: Kentucky Derby

American gelding Mine That Bird only cost $9,500 thanks to his pretty average bloodlines, but he certainly gave his connections a reason to celebrate back in 2009.

Priced at 50-1 and up against some of that season’s biggest talents, Mine That Bird shocked the nation to land the Kentucky Derby by a whopping seven lengths.

They say buying racehorses is the quickest way to lose money. However, Mine That Bird went on to land more than $2.2 million in earnings. Certainly, a horse of a lifetime.

Buster Douglas: Mike Tyson KO

Just hearing the words Mike Tyson was enough to leave many boxers in a cold sweat and fearing the worst and at 42/1, Buster Douglas could have been seen as one of them.

Douglas was largely an unknown when stepping into the ring in Tokyo back in 1990, arriving in Japan seven years older and with a much weaker record than his opponent.

Tyson was 37-0 with 33 knockouts and when knocking Douglas down in the eighth round, it looked as though another win was heading his way.

Douglas picked himself up, rallied and shocked Tyson and the world with a 10th round knockout. His success didn’t last too long though, with the victor losing to Evander Holyfield in his next fight.

Greece: Euro 2004

It wasn’t exciting, entertaining or even memorable for anybody outside of Greece, but their style of play was effective, and it saw them get their hands on the European Championship in 2004.

Priced at well over 100/1 for glory pre-tournament, it was a competition which saw the likes of Spain, Italy and Germany all bow out in the group stages, with France only reaching the quarter-finals.

Greece were the benefactors and it was a huge surprise, having only qualified for the competition once back in 1980, and even then, they failed to progress from the group.

With hosts Portugal their opponents in the final, Greece won 1-0 and became European champions despite scoring just seven goals throughout the tournament.

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