Bill tried to talk Tris out of it, but when he realized it was no use, he gave up.
A little betting was harmless fun, and few wizards refrained from gambling anyway. He knew his own dad had secretly put ten Galleons on England. The day England lost, his dad had acted as though nothing had happened, then gone home that evening and hidden in the garage, banging his head against the wall.
If Tris wanted to have a little flutter, Bill didn't think there was any need to worry too much. Once his little brother lost all his pocket money, he would learn the dangers of gambling for himself.
Of course, what Bill didn't know was that Tris had put down twenty thousand Galleons in one go. Had he known, he would certainly have tried harder to dissuade him, or told their parents outright.
Tris placed an accumulator bet.
He backed Ireland and Bulgaria to win their semifinals, then Ireland to win the final. He would only receive a payout if all three matches went as he predicted. Otherwise, he would get nothing.
Ireland was already a favorite to win the championship, so the odds weren't high. Transylvania, however, had originally been an outsider. After its overwhelming victory over England in the quarterfinals, plenty of people suddenly fancied its chances, driving its odds down.
Even so, the combined odds only came to 5.36, meaning a one-Galleon bet would return 5.36 Galleons.
The odds weren't especially high, but Tris had staked a lot.
His twenty-thousand-Galleon stake could return 107,000 Galleons, netting him a profit of 87,000. Though that was still less than his assets at their peak, it was a tidy windfall.
Goblins, financial consortiums, betting operations-they all made their money through shady means anyway. Tris had no qualms whatsoever