Talk about having faith in your kids.
A man has 10,000 reasons to believe his daughter will soar past Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga to reach 100 million Twitter followers before anyone else.
Karim Ullah placed a £10 bet at odds of 1,000 to one on 15-year-old Shakila, an aspiring singer, hitting the mark first. If she does, Ullah plans to donate his £10,000 ($15,633) winnings to a kids’ charity, the Herts and Essex Observer reported.
Shakila, of Stortford, England, has a long way to go. She has a little more than 2,100 followers. Yet her dad thinks she has “momentum” and believes her musician and humanitarian work will push her to the “incredibly ambitious target.”
Though Shakila has had her Twitter account, @1shakila, for over a year, she only recently started tweeting regularly and spotted a curious trend. “I’ve noticed so many more people are following me on Twitter after I started tweeting a lot more,” she said.
Her biggest rivals in the race to nine figures are far ahead, but none are halfway to her goal. Bieber leads the pack with 44.1 million followers, while Gaga and Katy Perry both have more than 40 million.
Bookmaker William Hill is bullish on Shakila’s chances. “Shakila will have to have a meteoric rise in order to trouble the likes of Bieber and Gaga, but she appears to be on the cusp of something big,” a spokesman said.
While it seems somewhat unlikely Shakila will hit 100 million first, there are other ways her dad might be able to help. Wonder if there’s anything in the rules about buying followers.
Screenshot via 1KU1/YouTube
