Leicester City is on track to defy 5000-1 odds and become the most unlikely title winner in club sports

SOME pundits believe it will be the most unlikely championship in the history of national club sports if Leicester City wins the English Premier League this season.

Leicester City's Jamie Vardy (left) congratulates teammates after beating Manchester City away last weekend. Picture: AFP.

SOME pundits believe it will be the most unlikely championship in the history of national club sports if Leicester City wins the English Premier League this season.

The Foxes began the campaign as 5000/1 outsiders with UBET to win the title and those odds would have been little surprise to anyone at the time.

Not only has the East Midlands club never finished higher than eighth since the EPL was established in 1992-93, it battled relegation for much of last year before coming 14th and sacking manager Nigel Pearson during the off-season.

But perhaps, most tellingly, only five teams – Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City and Blackburn Rovers – have been EPL champions.

Yet Claudio Ranieri’s Leicester has shocked the competition to be three points clear on top of the table with 13 matches remaining.

UBET spokesman Gerard Daffy said if the Foxes win the crown, “it would be the biggest upset in the history of sport globally”.

“You’re talking 5000/1, Eddie the Eagle or Eric the Eel,” Daffy said.

“When you’re 5000/1 to win the EPL, you’re not considered a hope – in fact, they were long odds to be relegated.

“It’s unheard of.”

So how would the Foxes’ against-the-odds run stack up against surprise title winners in other sports?

It is not always easy to compare competitions but, since the EPL started, there have been 11 clubs win AFL flags and 13 claim NFL Super Bowls.

Those figures point to title races in those leagues being much more cyclical than the EPL, where minnows like Leicester battle for survival, not the championship, year in, year out and there is no salary cap or draft to help struggling clubs climb the table.

The AFL premiers that started the season with the longest odds at UBET were Adelaide (1997), Sydney (2005) and Geelong (2007) – at just $26.

The Crows had finished 12th the previous season before Malcolm Blight took over as coach and led the club to its first flag.

Sydney was a premiership outsider despite being a semi-finalist in 2004, while Geelong came 10th the year before its premiership.

Wests Tigers rank as the biggest dark horse with punters to win an NRL crown, starting the 2005 season at $34.

The Tigers narrowly missed the finals in 2004, finishing ninth.

American sports produced betting boilovers in baseball and the NFL during the 1990s.

The Minnesota Twins prevailed in the World Series in 1991 despite finishing bottom of its division the previous year and starting the season as a 300/1 title underdog.

St Louis Rams went into the 1999 NFL campaign at the same odds – after winning just four of 16 games 12 months earlier – yet won the Super Bowl.

But as remarkable as all those other examples were, they would pale in comparison, at least from a punting perspective, to a Leicester title triumph.

At the start of the season the notion that the Foxes could win it would have seemed ludicrous.

More improbable than the thought of Essendon, a 500/1 premiership outsider after losing star players amid the supplement scandal, claiming this year’s AFL crown.

Although the punter who put $100 on the Foxes at 1000/1 through UBET before their campaign kicked off – to win $100,100 if they can hold on – might not think so.

Sunday night Leicester is the rank outsider in its away clash against fellow contender Arsenal. But the Foxes have beaten the odds all season and will take another step towards a fairytale title if they prevail at Emirates Stadium.

Originally published as Leicester City is on track to defy 5000-1 odds and become the most unlikely title winner in club sports