Christmas came 24 hours late for one Ipswich punter who took home more than £52,000 on a 16-match accumulator bet at an Ipswich bookies.

The man, who is thought to be in his 30s, placed the £2 bet on 16 winning teams – including Ipswich Town beating Brentford.

He wanted to remain anonymous, but he is known to staff at the Foxhall Road branch of Ladbrokes where he placed the bet. They said he is a very friendly punter who has an occasional flutter and that he lives near the shop.

His winnings of £52,393.77 were the largest Ladbrokes had to pay out across the country on Boxing Day – although it was a day when the results meant bookies lost heavily.

A spokeswoman for the company said: “Estimates suggest football fans picked up over £50 million from the betting industry as nine of the shortest-priced favourites won, including eight out of 10 favourites in the Premier League with a £10 bet on the most-fancied nine teams returning £550 at odds of 55/1.

“A record number of customers staking less than £5 collected over £500, with tens of thousands of customers staking less than £5 winning over £100.

“It’s safe to say bookies all over the UK had their chestnuts roasted on Boxing Day, but we can only doff our hat to our mystery punter for having the confidence and foresight to place such a bet.”

His day got off to a good start with Town’s victory over Brentford and Chelsea’s victory over West Ham – and by the time Arsenal took on QPR at home he must have been praying that the West Londoners’ dreadful away form would continue.

The winning 16-team accumulator:

Arsenal 3/10

Chelsea 2/5

Southampton 6/5

Tottenham 11/10

Swansea 4/5

Man City 8/15

Derby 5/4

Bournemouth 8/11

Ipswich 7/4

Wigan 17/10

Middlesbrough 17/20

Norwich 7/10

Sheff Wed 4/6

Bristol City 8/13

MK Dons 11/10

Shrewsbury 6/5

A £2 bet returned £52,393.77