As several lucky Leicester City fans pocket a small fortune, having placed pre-season bets at 5,000/1 on their team to win the English Premier League soccer title, we take a look at the most incredible long shot bets in sporting history.

After dreaming that Liverpool midfielder Xabi Alonso would score from his own half sometime during the 2006 English soccer season, Adrian Hayward placed a £200 ($290) bet at odds of 125/1. Alonso delivered the goods at the FA Cup Final, and Hayward banked £25,000 ($36k).

In 2011, an unnamed baseball fan placed a $250 (£172) bet at odds of 500/1 on underdogs St. Louis Cardinals making the World Series. He then followed up his outlandish wager with another one for the same amount when the odds hit 999/1. The Cards achieved the impossible and the gambler received a payout of $375,000 (£259k).

A sports-mad Australian named Brett cashed in on a parlay bet combining two horse races and last year's Masters Golf Tournament. Shelling out just A$250 (£129 / $187), he eventually won A$213,046 (£110k / $159k).

Three lucky gamblers made a tidy sum after betting on rank outsider Wishing Well to win a key race at Kentucky's Latonia track in 1912. At 947/1, the odds are the longest ever recorded against a single winning horse in American racing history.

Mali was losing 4-0 to Angola during the opening game of the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations with just 16 minutes remaining in the game. At that very moment, a drunken soccer fan placed a £5 ($7.24) bet at odds of 1,000/1 on Mali scoring four goals to equalize. The team famously pulled it off, and the fan won £5,000 ($7.2k).

In 1964, David Threlfall of Preston, England bet £10 ($15) a man would walk on the surface of the Moon by 1970. The wager seemed so far-fetched at the time, bookmaker William Hill offered odds of 1,000/1. Needless to say, when Neil Armstrong made his giant leap for mankind in 1969, Threlfall promptly received a payout for £10,000 ($14.5k).

An unnamed F1 enthusiast spotted 13-year-old Lewis Hamilton go-karting in 1998 and, certain he was destined for great things, placed a £100 ($145) bet on him winning a F1 World Championship one day. When Hamilton claimed the title in 2008, the prophetic person bagged £125,000 (£181k).

With a similar eye for fledgling talent, Peter Edwards had an inkling his 18-month-old grandson Harry Wilson would grow up to be a talented soccer pro, so in 1998 he bet £50 (£72) on the toddler playing for the Welsh national team some day. Fast-forward to 2013, and Wilson became the youngest player to represent Wales, netting his savvy grandpa a very respectable £125,000 ($181k).

In May 2015, an Australian rules football fan bagged hundreds of thousands of dollars after winning a cumulative wager. They had to predict the exact winning margin in two NRL games, and thanks to odds of 2,626/1, the A$100 (£51 / $75) stake turned into A$262,600 (£135k / $196k).

Californian couple Ryan Cazares and Nadia Nicole received a very welcome early Christmas gift when they bet $15 (£10.30) on 12 NFL games last December in Las Vegas. The football-loving twosome predicted the games' outcomes to a T, securing a $45,000 (£31k) payout.

A 49-year-old shift worker from Newport, South Wales enjoyed an unforgettable millennium celebration after winning £194,400 ($282k) on a £30 ($44) cumulative novelty bet placed back in 1989. At odds of 6,480/1, he correctly predicted that, by the year 2000, U2 would still be together, Cliff Richard would be knighted and three popular soap operas would still be on TV.

A shrewd soccer fan from London snagged £650,000 ($942k) after placing a £100 ($145) accumulator bet on the results of eight matches one Saturday afternoon in 2014. Against odds of 6,500/1, and to the horror of the bookmaker, all eight predictions turned out to be spot-on.

In February 2015, a Dublin resident hit the jackpot when a €10 (£7.92 / $11.49) soccer accumulator stake turned into €89,000 (£70k / $102k). The Irish sports fan bet on a total of 15 teams, beating odds of 8,900/1.

Darren Yeats of Morecambe, England put down £59 ($85) on jockey Frankie Dettori to win all his races at Ascot during the 1996 racing season. Against odds of 9,322/1, the Italian-born jockey achieved 'the magnificent seven' and Yeats bagged £550,000 (£797k).

Darren Yeats wasn't the only bettor to score megabucks following Dettori's historic win. Mary Bolton of Glastonbury, England was gifted a £216.91 ($314) combination bet by her husband to mark their 19th wedding anniversary – she eventually won £500,000 ($724k).

An Arizona NFL fan placed a frivolous $5 (£3.45) accumulator bet in September 2014, not expecting to win very much. In fact, against odds of 11,587/1 he correctly predicted the winners of 15 NFL games over a two-day period, landing $57,935 (£40k).

Stable lad Conor Murphy lucked out big-time when he put down a £50 (£72) accumulator bet on five of his boss's horses winning their races at the 2012 Cheltenham Festival in England. The horses triumphed and Murphy walked away with $1 million ($1.5m).

Las Vegas native Tayla Polia scooped $100,000 (£69k) on a $5 (£3.45) NFL accumulator bet in December 2015. The football fan successful guessed the outcomes of 15 games, including several nail-biting surprises.

Last year, Chelsea fan Dean Clay beat odds of 46,472/1, correctly predicting the outcomes of 14 English soccer matches. His £2 ($2.90) accumulator bet ballooned into £92,944 ($135k) – no doubt the post-match drinks were on him.

One seriously lucky mixed martial arts gambler bet a single dollar (69p) on nine underdogs to win at the UFC Fight Night 61 event in February 2015. The rank outsiders were victorious and the unnamed fan picked up a $48,291 (£33k) payout.

Last December, an anonymous Sky Bet customer in the UK put down a stake of just 15p (22¢) – the tiniest in our round-up – on a four-fold soccer accumulator. Correctly calling the outcome of all four games, he received a £20,000 ($29k) payout.

Back in February, a 27-year-old man from London nailed one of the biggest odds wins of all time at bookmaker William Hill when his £1 ($1.45) 16-fold accumulator bet paid off. The results of all 16 games were as he predicted, and the lucky Londoner banked £180,000 ($260k).

Ron Nicholson from Dorset, England scored piles of cash in 2004 after placing a £4 ($5.80) accumulator bet. He chose six different horses from six races and bet on them to win. Beating odds of up to 200,000/1, the six steeds didn't disappoint and Nicholson bagged £800,000 ($1.2m).

With the luck of the Irish on his side, a Galway-based punter relieved bookmaker Paddy Power of €206,262 (£163k / $237k) in February 2015 after winning a 17-team soccer accumulator bet with a stake of just €1 (79p / $1.15).

Craig Bazier, a bin cleaner from Mansfield, England, stung his unlucky bookmaker for £1.3 million ($1.9m) in 2014, after staking just £2 ($2.90) on six horses to win selected races in the UK. Wow.

A super-fortunate individual from the Mediterranean island of Malta converted €1 (79p / $1.15) into €683,739 (£542k / $785k), after correctly guessing the outcome of 19 European soccer matches.

In November 2011, a 41-year-old soccer gambler – who opted to remain anonymous – placed an audacious 19-team accumulator bet, staking just 85p ($1.23) at odds of 688,404/1. His hunches proved right and the man netted £585,143 ($848k).

After putting down a stake of just £2 (£2.90), plumber Steve Whiteley picked all six winners in the Tote jackpot at Exeter racecourse in March 2011, winning the grand prize of £1.4 million ($2m) – the biggest payout in our round-up – against odds of 700,000/1.

Beating extreme odds of 1,666,666/1, Mick Gibbs, a Manchester United fan from Staffordshire in England, predicted the results of 15 soccer and rugby matches during the 2013 season, transforming his meagre stake of 30p (43¢) into a bumper £500,000 ($724k).

In 2008, Yorkshireman Fred Craggs defied record-breaking odds of 2,000,000/1 to take home a cool £1 million ($1.5m) on a 50p (72¢) eight horse accumulator for races at Sandown, Wolverhampton and Dubai.