Weekend Review: Bookies suffer “worst” trading week of the season
Having paid out millions in midweek, operators found themselves out of luck and out of pocket on Saturday and Sunday
Bookies suffered their worst trading week of the Premier League season so far, with bet365 revealing it suffered another poor couple of days having paid out an eight-figure sum in midweek.
Results in the midweek fixtures were described as a “nightmare” by Betfred boss Fred Done, while bet365 claimed the weekend outcomes had condemned the operator to its worst week of the Premier League season so far.
“We dropped £11m in midweek and it was a similar story at the weekend, compounded by the three wins from behind, BTTS victories of Southampton, Spurs and Man City,” said Freeth.
“We’d love a return to the unpredictable top flight that served us so well before midweek.”
Freeth warned things could get worse for the firm if Liverpool were to pick up all three points at Goodison Park in the Merseyside derby this evening, with a large number of accumulators running on to the Red Men.
BetVictor was another firm on the losing side, with one lucky punter netting just over £200,000 off a £5 20-fold accumulator.
“Christmas has certainly come early for one young customer who has won a life-changing amount of money for a fiver and what a journey it was with no less than four of his Championship selections scoring late, late winners on Saturday,” said BetVictor’s Charlie McCann.
“Lady Luck was certainly shining on him and we have never seen fortune quite like it with cumulative odds of 41548/1 the biggest odds accumulator we can remember.”
Ladbrokes said the weekend’s results came close to matching its worst trading performance of the season with it all adding up to a difficult seven days overall for the bookie.
“Increasingly BTTS and match result and BTTS shapes our weekend as well as or over and above the actual result, so if a favourite wins with BTTS that’s always bad news,” said Ladbrokes’ Alex Donohue.
“The late Spurs goal was a huge blow, but on a positive note turnover on these recreational markets is surging which is obviously the aim long-term,” he added.
Elsewhere, Sports Personality of the Year favourite Andy Murray clinched the title for the third time, which just added to the woe for Ladbrokes and bet365.