Chapter 247 Here comes a crazy fan
Berlin Olympic Stadium, one of the venues for the 2006 World Cup.
There were several betting stations near the stadium. Zhang Wei directly chose the largest betting station and walked in.
Looking at the winning odds of each team, the Italian team was indeed 1 to 13, so Zhang Wei walked to the counter and asked in English: "Does this place accept large bets?"
< br>The young lady at the counter looked up and saw that she had an oriental face, so she knew that she was a tourist specially coming to watch the World Cup. They should be Japanese or Koreans, coming to cheer for their home team.
Watching football from such a distance must be a wealthy person, so the German girl said enthusiastically: "A large bet is above 1,000 euros. Sir, are you sure you want to make a large bet?"
"I'll buy 50,000 euros!" Zhang Wei said and took out a wad of euros.
The maximum denomination of the euro is 500 euros, and 50,000 euros is exactly one stack.
Seeing the 50,000 euros, the German girl at the counter was shocked and thought that she really had met a rich man! According to boarding income, many Germans cannot earn more than 50,000 euros in two years!
The German lady immediately walked out of the counter: "Sir, please come to the VIP room here. What would you like to drink? We have coffee and juice here!"
Zhang Wei came to the lounge, and the German lady went to call the supervisor of the betting station.
The supervisor came over directly with a laptop computer. This computer was connected to the Internet. It not only contained the winning odds of each team, but also the odds of winning, losing, and evening all the games in the next round. , as well as score odds, all updated in real time.
"Sir, which team or game do you want to buy? I can directly display the odds here." The manager said with a smile.
“No need to go to such trouble, I will buy 50,000 euros and Italy will win the championship!” Zhang Wei said simply.
“What are you talking about? 50,000 euros, all for Italy to win the championship?” The betting station manager was shocked.
He thought that for such a large amount of 50,000 euros, there must be 180 types of bets! Even if it’s just for one game, it should be a retest betting method. But I didn't expect Zhang Wei to directly ALLIN Italy to win the championship.
Zhang Wei asked: "What? Bet 50,000 euros on Italy to win the championship. Can't you buy it like this? Is there a limit on betting?"
"Of course there is no limit on betting. It's not that there is a limit on the bonus. Yes, the prize limit for a football lottery is 5 million euros," the director explained.
"The odds of Italy winning the championship are 1 to 13. For a bet of 50,000 euros, the bonus is 650,000 euros, which is less than the bonus limit!" Zhang Wei said.
“It’s less than the limit, but the risk of this kind of betting is relatively high. I suggest you try diversified betting, or try betting again to spread the risk.”
"I just vote like this. I am a loyal fan of the Italian team. I believe that the Italian team will definitely win the championship!" Zhang Wei said confidently.
"It's the fans of the Italian team!" The manager nodded suddenly. As a German, of course he knew that the fans were crazy and could do anything.
A crazy fan came and bet 50,000 yuan on the Italian team to win. This kind of thing is not the highest level of madness in the football circle.
“Sir, since you value the Italian team winning the championship, I can also provide several multiple betting methods about the Italian team. For example, in the next game, the Italian team will face the Czech team, and we will provide the outcome here. There are various betting methods such as draw, score, number of goals, etc.” the director continued.
“Then the odds of Italy winning the next game are 1 to 13?”
"This is definitely not the case. Although the Czech Republic is also a strong team, Italy is still stronger than the Czech Republic in terms of strength. In this game, Italy will face a bigger opponent, and the odds will certainly not be very high."< br>
"Then I'd rather buy Italy to win the championship!" Zhang Wei deliberately showed a determined expression.
“What a stupid fan! Forget it, since you have to throw your money into the water, I won’t stop you. Anyway, as long as you bet with me, my income will not be reduced. "
Thinking of this, the director of the betting station said: "Sir, you are definitely not German. Can I see your passport? Do you need your real name?" Zhang Wei asked doubtfully.
"Betting does not require your real name, but I want to confirm that you are over 18 years old. This is a large bet after all, and you are a foreigner, so I'd better confirm."
"Okay!" Zhang Wei handed his passport to the betting station supervisor to confirm that he was an adult.
The supervisor then said: "Please wait a moment, after all, this is a large bet of 50,000 euros. I want to report it to the headquarters."
Zhang Wei nodded, this The supervisor is probably going to confirm with the gaming company whether he wants to accept the order of 50,000 euros.
In China, large bets exceeding RMB 10,000 also require advance reservation and real-name authentication by the lottery center.
Germany's strict real-name lottery regulations were only implemented in 2008 to prevent minors from participating in gambling.
At the time of the 2006 World Cup, although the real-name authentication policy of the German lottery had not yet been implemented, Zhang Wei was a foreigner after all. In order to avoid disputes, the betting station supervisor confirmed that Zhang Wei was an adult.
The supervisor of the betting station called the company to report that only Zhang Wei and Lu Yunxiang were left in the VIP room.
"Brother, do you really want to buy 50,000 euros for Italy to win the championship? That's half a million yuan!" Lu Yunxiang asked cautiously.
In 2006, the euro was still very strong, and the exchange rate against the RMB was more than 1:10. After the outbreak of the European debt crisis, the exchange rate of the euro began to gradually widen. In 2015, at its worst, 1 euro could not even be exchanged for 7 yuan in RMB.
Foreign capital also purchased European assets on a large scale at that time. For example, many domestic wealthy people went to Europe to buy wineries, which happened after the European debt crisis broke out.
In 2006, 50,000 euros, or 500,000 yuan, must have been a lot of money. Zhang Wei spent it without blinking an eye. Even Lu Yunxiang, the rich second generation, was a little dumbfounded.
Seeing Lu Yunxiang's cowardly look, Zhang Wei said: "Let me tell you, Xiao Lu, your Porsche 911, including options, costs 1.8 million, right? Do you still care about the half a million? "RMB?"
"It's different. That's buying a car. This is buying a lottery ticket. If you buy a car, you can see and touch it. If you buy a lottery ticket, I have an explanation. I can't go to my dad for reimbursement with a lottery ticket, maybe I'll get beaten up!" Lu Yunxiang replied.
"If you make money, you don't have to be beaten." Zhang Wei rolled his eyes at Lu Yunxiang and continued: "If you can trust me, just buy with me. If you don't feel comfortable telling your dad, just buy less. .”
"Then I'll buy the one for 1,000 euros. Aren't you saying that more than 1,000 euros is a large bet? I'll just hit the threshold!" Lu Yunxiang said.
"Okay, 1,000 euros is quite a lot. The odds of 1 to 13 are 13,000 euros. After paying taxes, you still have a little over 10,000 euros, which is enough for you to stay in a hotel in Germany for more than half a month." Zhang Wei Said with a smile.
At this time, the betting station supervisor had already called the lottery company and reported the situation to his superiors.
"You mean a large bet of 50,000 euros for Italy to win? Who is the bettor?" asked the other end of the phone.
"He is a tourist from Asia. He is an adult. His passport shows that he is 21 years old. He claims to be a fan of the Italian team. I guess he may be a rich second generation!" the supervisor reported.
"If you are a tourist, there should be no problem. The odds of Italy winning the championship today are 1 to 13. For a bet of 50,000 euros, we need to pay 650,000 euros. Please wait a moment. I will ask my superiors for instructions and will reply to you immediately. . ”
For betting companies, a bonus of 650,000 euros is nothing, not to mention that it is still in the group stage. Betting on an Italian team with a score of 1-13 to win is almost the same as taking money for nothing. , there is no reason for the gaming company not to take this business.
After putting away the lottery tickets, Zhang Wei and Lu Yunxiang left the betting station.
"Brother, where should we go next? Are we going to eat?" Lu Yunxiang asked. "Eat, eat, eat, you know how to eat!" Zhang Wei snorted, and then said: "If you are hungry, go to the roadside and buy a sausage to fill it up. Let's go to Potsdam first, and then go to Magdeburg. After that Go to Hannover and Bremen, then go to Frankfurt, and try to stay in Munich tonight!”
"Why do you want to go to so many places?" Lu Yunxiang asked.
“Of course it’s for betting!” Zhang Wei replied.
"You still want to buy lottery tickets?" Lu Yunxiang was slightly surprised, and then asked: "Then you were at the betting station just now, so you could just buy more. Why bother!"
" You can't pick out a sheep, right? There are sixteen gaming companies in Germany!" Zhang Wei replied.
……
There are sixteen states in Germany, and each state has a bookmaker, so there are sixteen bookmakers in total. Except for the bookmakers in Bavaria, which are owned by the German federal government, the bookmakers in other states are privately owned.
The tax rate in the gaming industry is very high, reaching more than 25%. When encountering important events such as the World Cup and European Cup, the government will temporarily increase taxes.
For the state government, gaming companies are large taxpayers, so the state government is also happy to provide gaming companies with convenient policies to make them more profitable, so that the state government can also obtain more tax revenue.
Germany is a federal country, and each state has its own laws, so each state can protect the interests of its own state gaming companies at the legal level.
Therefore, compared with other European countries, Germany's supervision of the gambling industry is actually relatively loose, and it can even be said that the management is chaotic.
Many times the policies formulated by the federal government change when they reach the state government level. Even the states go their own way for their own interests, and the federal government has nothing to do about it.
There is no way around this. In a federal country, the power of the central government is destined to be limited, while local governments will have great autonomy.
When interests are involved, it is not uncommon for the state government to confront the federal government.
Sixteen gaming companies compete fiercely with each other.
If it’s just normal business competition, that’s it. The key is that these sixteen gaming companies have their own state governments as backers. It would be difficult for the federal government to intervene.
This is equivalent to eighteen princes fighting each other. Ask Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty if he can handle it?
So the gambling industry in Germany is also a monopoly in a sense, a local monopoly at the state level.
This also makes it easier for Zhang Wei to travel all over Germany to collect wool.
If there were only one or two bookmakers, Zhang Wei would have to spend hundreds of thousands of euros betting on Italy to win, and other bookmakers might not dare to take this business. Even if you take the order, you probably won't be able to give such high odds.
But it’s different if you spread your bets across a dozen bookmakers. A betting company of 50,000 euros and a bonus of 650,000 euros will not take it seriously. They will only think that there is a stupid fan who is unlucky.
Furthermore, after all, Italy is also a traditional strong team in Europe, with a long history and multiple World Cup championship honors. It is normal to have a few stupid fans!
……
In the last round of the group stage, Italy defeated the Czech Republic 2-0, and the winning odds changed from 1-13 to 1-9. On the last day of the group stage, it continued to rise to 1:8.5, tied for fourth place with the host Germany.
The top three odds are Argentina at 1 to 3.75, Brazil at 1 to 4, and England at 1 to 7.5.
England's odds of winning the championship have dropped because Owen was seriously injured in the group stage.
In the hotel room, Lu Yunxiang held two tickets and shouted in front of Zhang Wei with great interest.
"Brother, am I great? Look, I grabbed the ticket for Spain versus France!"
In the first round of the knockout rounds, four of the 16-to-8 matches were considered focus matches. .
The first game is Germany versus Sweden. In terms of strength, the German team is obviously stronger than the Swedish team, and the game is not really planned. Germany is the host, so this must be a focus battle.
The other three games are Spain versus France, Portugal versus the Netherlands, and Argentina versus Mexico.
From a European perspective, the match between Argentina and Mexico is insignificant. Europeans do not pay much attention to the games played by American teams. Probably only the few stars of the Argentine team who play in Europe can arouse the interest of European audiences.
The other two games are also strong dialogues. Among them, the game between Spain and France is obviously the most interesting one in the quarter-finals. Both teams are the top teams in Europe and have first-class star players.
Lu Yunxiang was able to grab the tickets for this game, which is indeed worthy of praise.
"The game is at the Lower Saxony Stadium in Hannover, and the time is the 28th. Brother, should we go there a day earlier, or on the day of the game?" Lu Yunxiang continued to ask.
"That's fine. Anyway, we didn't get tickets for the previous games. Why don't we go there a day early and take a stroll in Hannover. Isn't the beer in Hannover pretty good? It's a pity that your brother specimen didn't Come on. Let’s take some more photos of drinking beer and send them back to him. He will be so greedy!” Zhang Wei said.
"Okay, I'll call and book a hotel!" Lu Yunxiang said immediately.
During the World Cup, it will definitely be difficult to book a hotel, but with Lu Yunxiang’s Centurion Black Gold Card, there is no need to worry about not being able to book a hotel. Five-star hotels always reserve a few rooms for this special clientele.
Zhang Wei continued to ask; "Which one do you favor, Spain or France?"
"It's really hard to say! I feel that Spain is a little stronger than France, but France After all, there is Zidane!" Lu Yunxiang paused and then asked: "Brother, who are you optimistic about?"
"I am definitely optimistic about France! When I go out to eat later, I will buy tens of thousands more. France beats Spain." Zhang Wei said without hesitation that France would win before the final.
"Then I should buy less?" Lu Yunxiang said timidly.
At this moment, Zhang Wei’s cell phone rang, and the first four digits on the caller ID were 0034.
“0034, which country’s international dial code is this?” Zhang Wei said and glanced at Lu Yunxiang.
Lu Yunxiang immediately picked up the service manual on the table and started checking it.
Three seconds later, Lu Yunxiang replied: "Brother, 0034 is the number in Spain."
"What's going on? I just said that France was going to win against Spain. Why did I get a call from Spain? Is there a bug in the room? Are we being monitored? That's not right. I was speaking Chinese to Xiao Lu, foreigner. You shouldn’t understand!”
Zhang Wei frowned slightly and answered the phone in confusion.
"Hello, Mr. Zhang Wei, I'm Barlow from the Electronic Frontier Foundation!" President Barlow's voice rang on the phone.
"President Barlow?" Zhang Wei confirmed that it was his voice, and then asked: "Are you in Spain?"
"Yes, I am in Madrid! Tell you a good idea News, the Fields Medal is done! Next month, the International Congress of Mathematicians will be held in Madrid, Spain. It will be announced at the opening ceremony that you have won this year’s Fields Medal! ”
(End of this chapter)