A South Auckland punter has turned $12 into a "life-changing" $183,894 after an astonishing nine sporting events played out exactly as he predicted.
"I had a great weekend, mate," said the punter, who did not want to be identified but was happy to share his story.
It was a great weekend that could have been even better, with a Happy Meal costing the bettor close to $50,000.
The Papatoetoe welder placed his bet on Saturday morning at Hunters Corner TAB after studying the odds "for about 10 minutes".
He had to get all nine legs of his multi-bet correct, which started with Austria's Dominic Thiem beating German Alexander Zverev in four sets at the French Open ($3.70) and ended two nerve-shredding days later with the two Madrid giants Real and Athletico drawing at the end of normal time in the Champions League final ($3).
Nailing those two results is an impressive soothsaying feat in itself, but some of the punts he landed in between demonstrate either an intuitive grasp of sport, or sheer luck.
"You ... make your own luck," he said, before revealing wins of $7000, $3000 and $1000 in the past month.
Lady Luck was smiling on him in the third leg of his multi.
He had backed Brumbies wing Nigel Ah Wong to score two or more tries against the hapless Sunwolves but when time was up on the clock he'd scored just one.
However, the Brumbies kept the ball alive for a further two minutes before Ah Wong crossed the line in the last act of the game.
In his fourth leg, the punter required the Crusaders and Blues to total between 41 and 50 points yet the Blues were pressing for a try at the fulltime buzzer that could have lifted the total to 51, before settling for a penalty.
The Vixens needed to beat the Thunderbirds in the transtasman netball league by between 6 and 10 goals to keep the multi alive - they won by six.
He also picked the right margin in another all-Australian netball clash, with the Swifts winning by four against the Firebirds.
Spare a thought, too, for how he would have been feeling when Real were leading 1-0 and Athletico striker Antoine Griezmann missed a second-half penalty. Yannick Carrasco later popped up for the equaliser to confirm his win.
"I missed it," he said.
"I knew I had won the bet when the result popped up on my phone but I didn't know about the missed penalty."
This is a good news story with a twist, however.
He would normally have put $15 on the multi, but he left his wallet at home and instead had just the $20 note his wife left to buy their son his regular Saturday Happy Meal.
"My son didn't want to go back [for] my wallet.
"The Happy Meal cost $7.40 so I just used the $12 change instead," the man said.
As it turned out, it was a very expensive fast-food meal as a $15 outlay would have returned around $230,000.
Not that he's complaining, much.
He's got a loan he can pay off and potentially a deposit for a house now.
A TAB spokeswoman confirmed the validity of the bet.
The odds of winning all nine legs are about 15,000 to one.
