RFL Championship ace stars in Deal Or No Deal.. and it ends badly

Championship stalwart Dan Abram’s stint on hit ITV daytime show Deal or No Deal saw him centre stage earlier this week, but he could not beat the banker and became an unfortunate new entrant to the 1p club!

Utility back Abram, who has returned to Swinton Lions ahead of 2027 from fellow Championship outfit Hunslet, has over 200 career appearances on his CV.

He has also donned a shirt for Barrow Raiders, Whitehaven, Rochdale Hornets and Oldham: with 57 career tries scored and 511 goals kicked to date.

Having spent 30 episodes of Deal or No Deal without being selected to play the game, the show’s longest-serving contestant, Thursday saw him get his chance.

The 30-year-old had chosen box #1, matching up with his squad number, and the pattern continued: as it turned out he had the penny, becoming just the second person in three series’ of the revamped version of the show to take the smallest prize home.

Championship stalwart Dan Abram stars in Deal Or No Deal… and it ends badly

Deal or No Deal, of course, first aired in 2005, hosted by Noel Edmonds on Channel 4 – where it remained until 2016 with the highest prize on offer being £250,000.

Come 2023, it began again, this time on ITV 1 with a smaller top prize of £100,000: hosted by Stephen Mulhern.

Abram – who will turn 31 next week – was selected to play on Thursday’s instalment, episode four of series three on ITV.

With wife Chloe in attendance,  he discussed his rugby league career prior to starting his game – and a picture of him playing for Swinton was flashed up.

His game got off to a poor start, with his opening offer from the banker ironically being 1p. Steady improvement brought offers of £3,995 and £7,110, though.

Then came the downfall, with the show’s highest and second-highest prizes of £100,000 and £75,000 both taken out of the game in the next two boxes opened to leave Abram’s best possible take home at £7,500.

At that stage, the banker offered £965. Abram then wiped out £2,000 and £7,500, leaving his maximum take home at £250, with £58 offered by the banker.

Opting to play on until the end, he was eventually left with 1p and £250 on the board, and did not take the final offer from the banker of £91.01, so claimed the 1p which was in his #1 box.

The playmaker became just the second player since ITV took over the programme to take home 1p, and was awarded a specially-designed memento coin from host Mulhern for doing so before being swarmed by his fellow contestants.