Former Huddersfield Town striker Dale Tempest and his mates at SkyBet are licking their wounds.

Bookmakers throughout the UK were given another Boxing Day to forget as punters up and down the land received a belated Christmas present.

In total, 14 of the 15 most popular teams on the day all won, causing SkyBet to experience some of the heaviest losses in the company’s history – more than £10m!

Dale Tempest, the Public Relations Director of SkyBet

Tempest – now SkyBet’s Public Relations Director – flagged up Town to win by a single goal against Nottingham Forest as one of his best bets in the Championship.

It paid out at 5/2 following the 2-1 success for David Wagner’s side.

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Leeds-based SkyBet took a double hit after their Soccer Special Priceboost of Arsenal, Chelsea and West Ham had been enhanced from 4/1 to 6/1 and all three duly won.

The writing was on the wall at 5pm after a string of favourites won and this only proceeded to get worse as the well-supported Manchester City cruised to a comfortable 3-0 victory away at relegation favourites Hull City.

If it wasn’t for a shock Newcastle United defeat at home to Sheffield Wednesday in the Championship, it would have been the worst day in the history of the betting industry.

SkyBet spokesman Sandro Di Michele said: “December has been a great month for punters and they received even more festive cheer with incredible results (on Boxing Day).

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“It was a case of ‘Boxing Day ja vu’ and brought back painful memories of 2014, however these losses were even worse.”

One lucky SkyBet punter turned £5 into more than £50,000 with two winning football accumulators.

A £3 15-fold returned £40,519.98, while a £2 13-fold, containing all bar two of the same selections, brought him another £9,724.79.

Neither would have come off had Olivier Giroud not scored an 86th-minute winner for Arsenal against West Brom, the match having been deadlocked at 0-0 until then.

Di Michele went on: “Congratulations to the punter who won £50k from a £5 bet, this will be a Boxing Day he’ll never forget.

“It will, however, be another Boxing Day we’d like to forget with losses in excess of £10m.

“The only saving grace was an out of character Newcastle defeat and, for that, we are very grateful.”