Weekend Review: Premier League punters pack punch
Short-priced favourites oblige for punters with European results rescuing firms’ sportsbooks
Punters up and down the country will have celebrated bolstering their Cheltenham purses after some friendly Premier League results. Saturday’s two live televised Premier League games saw the favourites oblige despite Manchester United (5/4) leaving it late to bag the three points as Cristiano Ronaldo’s 81st minute hat-trick goal sank Spurs (21/10).
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) March 13, 2022Liverpool (9/20) got the ball rolling early doors running out comfortable 2-0 winners against a Brighton (6/1) side that have now lost five-in-a-row. Graham Potter’s team certainly look as though they are desperate for the season to end. Super Sunday also proved tricky for the traders with favourites Arsenal (2/5) and Chelsea (2/5) landing at short prices.
Betfred’s Alan Firkins was in stoic mood reflecting on the punter-friendly results: “Tough to do anything other than smile and pay up on the top-tier football front at weekend, with only Palace [23/10 to win or draw] perhaps to take something from Man City [1/3 to win] tonight in terms of light relief – we’ll see.” Star Sports head of content and social media David Stewart said: “It wasn’t great for us on the football. Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal all looked good things pre-match and so it proved with plenty of accas landing.” Steve Freeth from bet365 pointed to results further afield saving the weekend, however. “We had a number of good results scattered around Europe. Draws between Torino (4/1) and Inter (3/4) and Atalanta (3/10) and Genoa (8/1) while on Saturday, we had a blinding result in Germany with Hoffenheim (5/1) and Bayern Munich (2/5) sharing the spoils,” he said. The racing world was relatively quiet this weekend ahead of the Cheltenham Festival starting on Tuesday. Suprise Package (20/1) winning the televised Imperial Cup at Sandown live on ITV proved to be a successful one for the traders. Stewart said: “To get a 20/1 winner of the big, televised race was a good result for the firm.” Janis Strauts of Virgin Bet alluded to Sandown saying: “The highlight [of Saturday’s racing] was the Imperial Cup at Sandown which celebrated a 20/1 Irish winner, perhaps an omen of things to come this week at Cheltenham. This was a strong result for us, and other good results at Sandown meant it was our best performing track.” Elsewhere, Ireland’s (5/6) victory over England (11/10) in the Six Nations was a good result despite Eddie Jones’ side starting the match as slight favourites. Stewart said: “The trading office was cheering on Ireland (at least with business hats on) against England at Twickenham on Saturday in the Six Nations. We’d laid England for a large, combined amount and obviously got off to an unexpected start with the early red card.”⚡️ BIG. THREE. POINTS ⚡️ pic.twitter.com/nQL0PjeJb3
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) March 13, 2022