Canadian Sportscaster Wins $2 Million Lottery on Live TV

Nov. 3, 2011 — -- A live lottery drawing on a local news station in Canada stunned viewers and the news anchors when the winner turned out to be the station's sportscaster.

After some initial confusion, Barry Deley of Vancover, Canada, was announced the winner of the BC Children's Hospital Foundation Dream Lottery.

With the win, Deley has a choice of a cash prize of $2 million or one of four luxury homes.

The announcement surprised his colleagues, Sophie Lui and Squire Barnes, who were on the air covering the lottery drawing live.

"Are you serious?" Deley exclaimed, after his colleagues reached him over the phone to congratulate him. "I had a little dream about this, but that never comes true."

Deley was reached at the grocery store and initially thought the call from the station was about an upcoming shift.

"You know people are going to think this is kind of fishy, don't you?" said Deley, when he realized he what he had won.

Deley, the senior sports reporter at Global BC, was especially touched by the win because of the fact that the BC Children's Hospital was where his daughter Eden was treated for leukemia when she was just 4 years old.

"It's just been a huge part of our life because our daughter," Deley told Global BC a few hours after his win. "They saved her life and we are forever grateful."

All of the proceeds from the lottery will go to research programs at the BC Children's Hospital, among them childhood cancer research.

"We always love to give back to them," said Deley's wife, Katie Deley.

Stephen Forgacs, the director of communications at the BC Children's Hospital Foundation, was delighted that the prize went to the family of a former patient.

"It's always great to see people who've had an experience with the hospital [and] see some good come from it," said Forgacs, who estimated the odds of winning at 1 in 288,000.

After telling him his prize options -- the cash or the luxury home -- Barnes, the sports director for the station, teased Deley about his future at Global BC.

"Should I start looking for a new sportscaster?" joked Barnes.

While Deley said he has not yet decided on a prize, he told Global BC that with a growing family, now numbering five, he is leaning towards picking a larger home.

That's what his 11-year-old daughter, Eden, is hoping for. With the extra room, her father expects the family will have space for the pet cat she has been asking for.