AN ex-pat Clarets fan hit the jackpot when he won more than £42,000 before Sean Dyche’s men took to the field at Charlton to win the Championship.

In November, Sean Keyes, 32, placed a wager with online gambling site Bet365, on Burnley FC to win the Championship and Leicester to clinch the Premier League, at odds of 4,000 to 1.

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When he placed the bet in Dublin, the bookies had Sean Dyche’s men as 8-1 contenders, but Leicester’s odds were out at 500-1.

Former Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar student Sean, who works for Twitter in the Irish capital but is originally from Ewood Bridge, watched in Belfast as Chelsea’s draw with Tottenham clinched the league for the East Midlands club.

This development alone ensured that the former Rossendale man would walk away with at least 15,000 euros (almost £12,000), even before a ball was kicked at The Valley, as Burnley were already guaranteed a top-three finish.

Before the Clarets' final outing, Bet365 offered Sean a ‘cash-out’ figure of 53,600 euros (about £42,000), not far short of the 60,120 euros he would have eventually won.

He said: “It was the difference between losing 7,000 euros or losing 35,000, so even though I had faith in Sean Dyche and Burnley, it was nice to sit back and relax for the last match.”

His golden double was not the first time football betting had paid off for Sean, after successful stakes on the England women’s football team. But these had only yielded just over 1,000 euros.

Sean said: “I’m not sure why I thought of Leicester but I do remember reading an online blog about how they could win the league, around that time, and it all clicked.

“I was always confident of Burnley.”

The last game Sean attended was the Clarets’ derby loss to Preston, so he was anxious not to jinx his favourites for the run-in.

“But he now plans to buy two season tickets for the return to the big time, as well as putting his new-found fortune towards a house deposit.