A London-based punter is celebrating after winning £1.2 million after betting that Donald Trump would win the US presidential election.

Vincent Tchenguiz placed several bets, totalling £350,000 with brokers Betfair and Spreadex, on a win for the Republican, netting himself a profit of £850,000.

The 60-year-old property tycoon stayed up all night watching the results unfold. At first he thought Hillary Clinton would clinch the job and was about to go to bed, but as Mr Trump began to pull ahead Mr Tchenguiz thought better of it.

However, once his win was confirmed and Mr Tchenguiz realised he had won £1.2 million, he simply went to bed "happy".

Currently Mr Tchenguiz - who in 2011 was estimated as having a net worth of £850 million along with his brother Robert - says he has no plans on what to spend his winnings on, but admits he will probably use the money buying and selling currencies, something he frequently does.

However, he also admitted he will probably place some football bets too.

Mr Tchenguiz said he was surprised by the extent to which everyone had dismissed Mr Trump as the next US president.

After watching the primaries and debates, and following the run-up to the election for months, Mr Tchenguiz said that not only did he "learn a lot", but that he "thought Trump had a reasonable chance of winning" due to the amount of primaries he had won.

Mr Tchenguiz added: "The odds were pretty good to place a bet on Trump", and so he placed an initial £100,000 bet on The Donald thinking "let's see what happens".

Aside from his win in the US election, Mr Tchenguiz said his biggest bookmakers win was £1 million which he made after betting £200,000 that Greece would win Euro 2004.

Asked what he thought of Mr Trump, Mr Tchenguiz said that had he lived in America he would have backed the billionaire businessman, as he believes his policies on taxes and creating jobs for the US will help growth within the country, and thinks he will be able to form an alliance with Russia to help combat the war on terror and deal with some of the issues in the Middle East.

However, he said he believed Mr Trump's views on immigration was "election posturing", adding he did not thing he would "kick 11 million people out" of the country.

He also conceded the Republican candidate had alienated elements of the electorate due to comments he had made.