They’re all reborn, what’s wrong with being a little more almighty?

Chapter 247 Here Comes a Brainless Fan

Berlin's Olympic Stadium was one of the venues for the 2006 World Cup.

There were several betting stations near the stadium. Zhang Wei directly chose the largest one and walked in.

After looking at the odds of each team winning the championship, the Italian team was indeed 1 to 13, so Zhang Wei walked to the counter and asked in English: "Do you accept large bets here?"

The lady at the counter looked up and saw an Asian face, so she knew that it was a tourist who came to watch the World Cup. It should be Japanese or Korean, who came to cheer for their home team.

Since they came from so far away to watch the game, they must be rich people, so the German girl said enthusiastically: "A bet of more than 1000 euros is a large amount. Sir, are you sure you want to place a large bet?"

"I'll buy 50,000 Euros!" Zhang Wei said and took out a stack of Euros.

The largest denomination of the Euro is 500 Euros, and Euros is just one stack.

Seeing the 50,000 euros, the German lady at the counter was shocked and thought that she had really met a rich man! According to the income on the Internet, many Germans can't earn 50,000 euros in two years!

The German lady immediately came out from the counter and said, "Sir, please come to the VIP room over here. What would you like to drink? We have coffee and juice here!"

Zhang Wei came to the lounge, and the German girl went to call the supervisor of the betting station.

The supervisor came over with a laptop computer. This computer was connected to the Internet and contained not only the championship odds of each team, but also the win, loss and draw odds of all the games in the next round, as well as the score odds. All data was updated in real time.

"Sir, which team or game do you want to buy? I can show you the odds here directly." The supervisor said with a smile.

"No need to go through so much trouble. I'll bet 50,000 euros on Italy winning the championship!" Zhang Wei said straightforwardly.

"What did you say? Fifty thousand euros, all on Italy winning the championship?" The betting station manager was shocked.

He thought that for such a large amount of 50,000 euros, there should be at least 180 ways to bet! Even if it was just for one game, it should be a retest of the betting methods. But he didn't expect Zhang Wei to go all in on Italy to win the championship.

Zhang Wei asked, "Why? Can't I just bet 50,000 euros on Italy winning the championship? Is there a limit on the betting amount?"

"Of course there is no limit on betting, but there is a limit on the prize money. The prize limit for a football lottery ticket is 500 million euros," the supervisor explained.

"The odds of Italy winning the championship are 1 to 13. With a bet of 65 euros, the prize money will be euros, which is less than the prize limit!" Zhang Wei said.

"It's not up to the limit, but this way of betting is also risky. I suggest you try to spread your bets, or try again to spread the risk."

"That's how I vote. I'm a loyal fan of the Italian team and I believe that the Italian team will definitely win the championship!" Zhang Wei said confidently.

"It's the fans of the Italian team!" The supervisor nodded as if he suddenly realized something. As a German, he certainly knew that when fans get crazy, they can do anything.

A brainless football fan came and bet 50,000 yuan on the Italian team to win the championship. This kind of thing is not considered the craziest thing in the football circle.

"Sir, since you think highly of Italy's victory, I can also provide several compound betting methods for the Italian team. For example, in the next game, Italy will face the Czech team, and we offer a variety of betting methods including win, loss, draw, score, number of goals, etc." the supervisor continued.

"So, in the next game, are the odds of Italy winning 1 to 13?"

"That's definitely not the case. Although the Czech Republic is also a strong team, Italy is still stronger than the Czech Republic. In this match, Italy faces a bigger opponent, so the odds will certainly not be very high."

"Then I'll still bet on Italy to win the championship!" Zhang Wei deliberately showed a determined expression.

"What a brainless fan! Forget it, since you insist on throwing your money into the water, I won't stop you. Anyway, as long as you place bets with me, my income will not decrease."

Thinking of this, the betting station manager said: "Sir, you are definitely not German. Can I see your passport?"

"See your passport? Doesn't it mean that you don't need your real name to place a bet?" Zhang Wei asked doubtfully.

"You don't need to use your real name to place bets, but I need 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 it."

"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 need to report it to the headquarters."

Zhang Wei nodded. This supervisor was probably going to confirm with the bookmaker whether or not to accept the 50,000 Euro order.

In China, large bets exceeding RMB 10,000 also require advance reservations and real-name authentication at the lottery center.

Germany's regulations on real-name lottery tickets were only implemented in 2008, with the aim of preventing minors from participating in gambling.

During 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 manager confirmed that Zhang Wei was an adult.

The betting station supervisor went to call the company to report, and only Zhang Wei and Lu Yunxiang were left in the VIP room.

"Brother, do you really want to bet 50,000 euros on Italy winning the championship? That's 500,000 RMB!" Lu Yunxiang asked cautiously.

In 2006, the euro was still very strong, and the exchange rate against the RMB was more than 1 to 10. After the outbreak of the European debt crisis, the euro exchange rate began to gradually depreciate. In 2015, the worst year, 1 euro could not even be exchanged for 7 RMB.

Foreign capital also acquired European assets on a large scale at that time. For example, many wealthy people in China went to Europe to buy wineries. This happened after the outbreak of the European debt crisis.

In 2006, euros, or RMB, was definitely a large sum of money. Zhang Wei spent it without blinking an eye. Even Lu Yunxiang, a rich second-generation, was dumbfounded.

Seeing Lu Yunxiang's cowardly look, Zhang Wei said, "Xiao Lu, your Porsche 911, including the options, should cost 180 million, right? Are you still concerned about the yuan?"

"They are different. That was buying a car, and this is buying lottery tickets. If I buy a car, at least I can see and touch it, and I can have an explanation to my dad. If I buy lottery tickets, I can't just take a lottery ticket to my dad for reimbursement, right? I might get beaten!" Lu Yunxiang replied.

"If you make money, you won't have to get beaten." Zhang Wei rolled his eyes at Lu Yunxiang and continued, "If you trust me, just buy from me. If you feel it's hard to explain to your dad, buy less."

"Then I'll buy 1000 Euros. Isn't it said that bets above 1000 Euros are considered large bets? I'll just set a threshold!" Lu Yunxiang said.

"Okay, 1000 euros is not a small amount. The odds are 1 to 13, which means 13000 euros. After paying taxes, you will have a little over left, which is enough for you to stay in a hotel in Germany for most of half a month." Zhang Wei said with a smile.

At this point, the betting station supervisor had already called the lottery company and reported the situation to his superiors.

"Are you talking about a large bet of 50,000 Euros on Italy winning the championship? Who is the bettor?" asked the person on the other end of the line.

"He is a tourist from Asia, he is an adult and his passport shows he is 21 years old. He claims to be a fan of the Italian team. I guess he might be a second-generation rich man!" the supervisor reported.

"If you are a tourist, then there should be no problem. The odds of Italy winning the championship today are 1 to 13. For a bet of 65 euros, we will need to pay euros. Please wait a moment. I will ask my superiors and get back to you right away."

For bookmakers, a bonus of 65 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 the championship is almost like throwing money down the drain. There is no reason for bookmakers not to take this business.

After putting away the lottery ticket, Zhang Wei and Lu Yunxiang left the betting station.

"Brother, where are we going next? Are we going to eat?" Lu Yunxiang asked. "Eat, eat, eat, you only know how to eat!" Zhang Wei snorted coldly, and then said: "If you are hungry, go to the roadside and buy a sausage to fill your stomach. Let's go to Potsdam first, then to Magdeburg, then to Hanover and Bremen, and then to Frankfurt. We will try to stay in Munich tonight!"

"Why do you have 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: "Why didn't you just buy more at the betting station just now? Why bother?"

"You can't just pick one sheep and fleece it, right? There are sixteen bookmakers in Germany!" Zhang Wei replied.

……

Germany has 16 states, each with a bookmaker, so there are 16 bookmakers in total. Except for Bavaria, which is 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 over 25%. When encountering important events such as the World Cup and the European Cup, the government will temporarily increase taxes.

For state governments, gambling companies are major taxpayers, so they are also happy to provide convenient policies to gambling companies to allow them to make more profits, so that the state governments 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's gambling companies at the legal level.

Therefore, Germany's supervision of the gambling industry is actually relatively loose compared to other European countries, 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. The states even act independently for their own interests, and the federal government has no way to deal with this.

There is no way around it. In a federal country, the power of the central government is destined to be limited, while local governments will have great autonomy.

Once interests are involved, it is not uncommon for state governments to go against the federal government.

There are sixteen gaming companies and the competition among them is very fierce.

If it was just normal business competition, it would be fine. But the key is that these 16 gaming companies are backed by their respective state governments. It is difficult for the federal government to intervene.

This is equivalent to a fight among the eighteen princes. Do you think Emperor Xian of Han can do anything about it?
So Germany's gambling industry is, in a sense, also a monopoly, a local monopoly at the state level.

This also made it convenient for Zhang Wei to travel all over Germany to get the best deals.

If there were only one or two bookmakers, Zhang Wei would have to bet hundreds of thousands of euros on Italy winning the championship, but the bookmakers might not dare to accept the order. Even if they did, they probably wouldn't give such high odds.

But if you spread the bets among more than a dozen bookmakers, it's a different story. A 65 euro bet and a euro prize will not be taken seriously by the bookmakers, who will only think that it was a stupid fan who got lucky.

Besides, Italy is a traditional European powerhouse with a long history and multiple World Cup championship honors. It is normal to have a few brainless fans!

……

In the last round of the group stage, Italy defeated the Czech Republic 2-0, and the odds of winning the championship changed directly from 1 to 13 to 1 to 9. On the last day of the group stage, it continued to rise to 1 to 8.5, tied for fourth place with the host Germany.

夺冠赔率的前三名分别是阿根廷的1比3.75，巴西的1比4，和英格兰的1比7.5。

England's odds of winning the championship have been lowered because Owen was seriously injured in the group stage.

In the hotel room, Lu Yunxiang held two tickets and showed off in front of Zhang Wei excitedly.

"Brother, am I awesome? Look, I got a ticket for the match between Spain and France!"

In the first round of the knockout stage, four games were considered to be the focus of the competition.

The first match is between Germany and Sweden. In terms of strength, Germany is obviously stronger than Sweden, so the match is not very exciting. Germany is the host, so this must be a focus match.

The other three games are Spain vs. France, Portugal vs. the Netherlands, and Argentina vs. Mexico.

From the European perspective, the match between Argentina and Mexico is insignificant. Europeans do not pay much attention to the matches between American teams. Perhaps only the few stars of the Argentine team who play in Europe can arouse the interest of European audiences.

The other two matches were also strong matches, and the match between Spain and France was obviously the most interesting one in the quarter-finals. Both teams are top European teams with first-class star players.

Lu Yunxiang actually managed to grab a ticket for this game, which is indeed something to be proud of.

"The match will be held at the Lower Saxony Stadium in Hannover on the 28th. Brother, should we go there a day in advance or on the day of the match?" Lu Yunxiang asked.

"That's fine. We didn't get tickets for the previous games anyway. Why don't we go there a day in advance and take a look around Hanover. Isn't the beer in Hanover pretty good? It's a pity that your specimen brother didn't come. Then we can take some more photos of us drinking beer and send them to him later to make him envious!" Zhang Wei said.

"Okay, I'll call and book a hotel!" Lu Yunxiang said immediately.

During the World Cup, it is definitely 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 these special customers.

Zhang Wei continued to ask, "Spain and France, who do you think will win?"

"It's really hard to say! I feel that Spain is a little stronger than France, but France has Zidane after all!" Lu Yunxiang paused and then asked: "Brother, who do you think is the best?"

"I'm definitely optimistic about France! When we go out to eat later, I'll buy a few tens of thousands of dollars worth of bets on France to beat Spain." Zhang Wei said without hesitation. Before the final, you can bet on France to win without thinking.

"Then I'll buy less?" Lu Yunxiang said timidly.

At this moment, Zhang Wei's cell phone rang, and the first four digits of the caller ID were 0034.

"0034, which country's international area code is this?" Zhang Wei said and gave Lu Yunxiang a look.

Lu Yunxiang immediately picked up the service manual on the table and started looking it up.

Three seconds later, Lu Yunxiang replied: "Brother, 0034 is a call from Spain."

"What's going on? I just said France is going to beat Spain, how come we got a call from Spain? Is there a bug in the room? Are we being monitored? That doesn't make sense. Xiao Lu and I were speaking Chinese, so foreigners shouldn't understand us!"

Zhang Wei frowned slightly and answered the phone in confusion.

"Hello, Mr. Zhang Wei, this is Barlow from the Electronic Frontier Foundation!" The voice of President Barlow was heard on the phone.

"President Barro?" Zhang Wei confirmed that it was his voice, and then asked, "You are in Spain?"

"Yes, I'm in Madrid! I have good news for you. The Fields Medal has been awarded! 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)