Oxfam set for £100,000 Federer Wimbledon bet win
- Published
Oxfam has until 2020 for Federer to win his seventh Wimbledon
Charity Oxfam is set for a £100,000 windfall if tennis star Roger Federer wins this year's Wimbledon thanks to a bet from a late supporter.
Nicholas Newlife, from Kidlington, Oxfordshire, left his entire estate including a series of outstanding bets to Oxfam when he died in February 2009.
One of them includes Federer claiming seven titles at SW19 where the championships start on Monday.
Oxfam said it would be keeping a "close eye" on events at the Grand Slam.
Mr Newlife's bets could net the charity more than £330,000 over the next 10 years.
They are pinned on tennis stars Federer and Andy Roddick, and cricketer Ramnaresh Sarwan.
The bets were placed with bookmakers William Hill between 2000 and 2005.
The first bet, £250 on Roger Federer to win at least 14 grand slam titles before 2020 at 66/1, won £16,750 for Oxfam and was claimed last year when Federer won the French Open.
One of the other gambles saw £1,520 staked at the same odds of 66/1 for the Swiss star to win seven Wimbledons before the year 2020.
If the world number two claims the title over the next two weeks he will win Oxfam £101,840.
William Hill spokesman Graham Sharpe said: "Mr Newlife made arrangements in his will to pass any profit from his bet on to his favoured charity, Oxfam - a unique eventuality in our experience.
"We will, of course, be handing the profits from his far-sighted wager to them just as soon as Federer holds the trophy aloft for a seventh time.
"In the event that he fails to win this year - and he is 6/4 favourite to do so - the bet does not run out until 2019," he added.
Oxfam said it was "enormously grateful" to Mr Newlife and that it would be keeping a "close eye" on Wimbledon this year as a result.
Should all the bets come to fruition, Oxfam would receive around £330,000, which would be enough to buy emergency rations for almost 46,000 people, safe water for more than 350,000 people, or buy 12,800 goats.
Other unusual legacies that Oxfam has received include: a pair of gold teeth and a dentist's chair from a former dentist; the royalties from a number of books and plays, including Doctor Finlay's Casebook, which was on TV from 1962 to 1971 and a letter written by Florence Nightingale, which was sold for several hundred pounds at auction.