Weekend Review: Bookies' good run goes on

Bookmakers’ satchels continue to bulge after layers enjoyed yet another set of favourable results, with the two-all draw in Saturday’s north London derby getting the weekend off to a great start.

Things looked ominous for the bookies when the well-backed Tottenham Hotspur went 2-1 ahead in the second half but Arsenal, who played the final half an hour with 10 men, managed to salvage a late equaliser and deny the punters.

Ladbrokes’ PR manager Jessica Bridge said the derby draw “sent many an accumulator crashing before a ball had even been kicked in the 3pms”, while Betfred described the scoreline as a “great result”.

And the 3pm games were also favourable as Manchester City’s routine win over Aston Villa was more than balanced out by home favourites Chelsea, Southampton and Everton all failing to register a victory.

The day’s late game saw Leicester City maintain its title charge with a narrow win away at Watford. Sky Bet said Leicester proved to be a popular selection but the 1-0 scoreline saw the firm profit on a number of sub markets and ensured it was a “bumper day for the layers”.

“Just two of the seven most popular favs won at 3pm which needless to say gave Sky Bet an extremely healthy profit,” Sandro Di Michele, Sky Bet head of PR, said.

On Saturday morning Ladbrokes reported a customer, who had backed Leicester to win the league for ?50 at 5,000/1, decided to cash out his bet for a return of ?72,335.

However, the day’s football results, which saw Leicester go five points clear at the top of the table, meant had the punter been able to hold his nerve for just a few more hours he would have been able to cash out for an extra ?19,000.

Sunday’s two televised games were a mixed bag for the layers with favourites Liverpool snatching a last minute win at Crystal Palace. However, Manchester United’s defeat at West Bromwich Albion ensured the books finished ahead.

Betfred said United’s defeat “saved us a fortune” after it had lost a six-figure sum on Liverpool, while Betway’s Alan Algar said the loss prevented it from paying out on a number of doubles.

“There’s still a lot of weight attached to the names of Manchester United and Liverpool and the double – which paid just over 3/1 – was very popular on Sunday,” Algar said. “So West Bromwich Albion beating United was a pleasing result.”

And the pleasing results didn’t stop at football. Saturday night saw Ireland’s Conor McGregor suffer a shock second round defeat to Nate Diaz in the MMA headline bout.

“Conor McGregor’s choke in the early hours of Sunday morning saw hundreds of thousands of pounds remain in the Magic Sign kitty,” Ladbrokes’ Bridge said.

“Prior to the fight we couldn’t give Nate Diaz away, everyone wanted to be with the 1/4 favourite, of which plenty of punters included in their multi-sport accumulators on Saturday,” she added.

Sky Bet lauded the increased popularity of MMA and said it had managed to rack-up more than ?1m in liabilities on McGregor to win in the first two minutes of the fight.

Meanwhile, the bookie was also thankful Adam Scott managed to overturn Rory McIlroy’s lead in the Doral World Golf Championship, a result which saved Sky Bet from a major pay out.

“We were grateful for Adam Scott’s second win in two weeks preventing a big pay out on Rory McIlroy,” Di Michele said. “The Irishman traded as short as 8/15 for the title, before the Australian came from behind to win and is now just 12/1 to win the Masters.”

The weekend wasn’t all plain sailing for the bookies, however, with both Ladbrokes and Sky Bet reporting big losses as The Last Samurai surged to the head of the Grand National betting after taking the Grimthorpe Chase at Doncaster.

Ladbrokes said The Last Samurai’s victory saw it pay out “well into six figures” with its traders “already having nightmares” about the potential loss should the horse repeat the trick at Aintree on 9 April.