Newcastle United owner and Sports Direct boss Mike Ashley has claimed a "comprehensive victory" in his High Court battle with an investment banker over a £15 million deal allegedly made in a London pub.
Investment banker Jeffrey Blue told a judge that Mr Ashley promised to pay him £15 million if he used his expertise to double Sports Direct's share price to £8 a share.
He said Mr Ashley paid only £1 million and he wanted £14 million damages.
Mr Ashley denied the claim and said Mr Blue was talking ''nonsense''.
Mr Justice Leggatt heard that the dispute centred on a conversation in the Horse and Groom pub in Great Portland Street, central London four years ago.
The judge, who analysed evidence at a High Court trial in London earlier this month, on Wednesday dismissed Mr Blue's claim.
He said no-one at the pub would have thought any offer Mr Ashley made was serious.
The judge said Mr Blue may have borne a grudge against Mr Ashley.
"In the course of a jocular conversation with three investment bankers in a pub on the evening of January 24 2013, Mr Ashley said that he would pay Mr Blue £15 million if Mr Blue could get the price of Sports Direct shares (then trading at around £4 per share) to £8," said Mr Justice Leggatt in a ruling.
"Mr Blue expressed his agreement to that proposal and everyone laughed.
"Thirteen months later the Sports Direct share price did reach £8.
"But no reasonable person present in the Horse and Groom on January 24 2013 would have thought that the offer to pay Mr Blue £15 million was serious and was intended to create a contract, and no one who was actually present in the Horse and Groom that evening - including Mr Blue - did in fact think so at the time.
"They all thought it was a joke.
"The fact that Mr Blue has since convinced himself that the offer was a serious one, and that a legally binding agreement was made, shows only that the human capacity for wishful thinking knows few bounds."
The judge told lawyers: "He (Mr Blue) may to some extent borne some degree of grudge against Mr Ashley."
Mr Ashley was not in court to hear the judge deliver his ruling.
A barrister leading his legal team said he has won a "comprehensive victory".
The businessman said afterwards in a statement: "The only reason the Sports Direct share price exceeded £8.00, and will hopefully do so again, is because of the sterling efforts of all the people who work at Sports Direct."
Mr Ashley told the trial how he had met Mr Blue and other finance specialists at the pub and ''consumed a lot of alcohol''.
''I can't remember the details of the conversations that we had in the pub as it was a heavy night of drinking,'' Mr Ashley had said.
''I do remember that we had a lot of drinks and a lot of banter.
''If I did say to Mr Blue that I would pay him £15 million if he could increase (Sports Direct's) share price to £8, it would be obvious to everyone, including Mr Blue, that I wasn't being serious.''
He said he paid Mr Blue, who he called ''Jeffers'', £1 million for ''other deals'' unrelated to the night in the Horse and Groom.
Mr Blue told the judge that Mr Ashley was a ''serious businessman''.
He said the work ethic at Sports Direct was ''like nothing else I have ever seen''.
But he said Mr Ashley sometimes did business ''in unorthodox ways and in unusual venues''.
He told how Mr Ashley once vomited into a fireplace after a senior management meeting that was ''effectively a pub lock-in'' and said the businessman would take naps under tables at ''boring'' meetings.
Mr Justice Leggatt had told lawyers at the end of the trial that the case had been ''a lot more interesting than some''.
The judge said in his ruling: "The Sports Direct senior management meetings certainly show that Mr Ashley is happy to combine discussion of business matters with the consumption of alcohol.
"But there is no evidence to suggest that Mr Ashley has ever negotiated or concluded a contract at one of these meetings.
"The evening at the Horse and Groom was, in any event, a considerably less formal occasion than the senior management meetings, as there was no agenda or structure for the occasion and the conversation was largely social or general chat, rather than being specifically directed to any business subject."
Mr Justice Leggatt said he had no reason to think that either Mr Ashley or Mr Blue was "doing anything other than stating their honest belief based on their recollection of what was said".
But he said evidence based on recollection of conversations which occurred several years ago was problematic.
Lawyers told the judge that Mr Ashley had run up legal bills of £1.5 million and Mr Blue bills of "one million odd".
The judge said Mr Blue would have to pick up Mr Ashley's legal bills.
He said £600,000 would have to be paid on account within the next month.
Lawyers indicated that Mr Blue had been "assisted" by insurers in launching the litigation.