Weekend Review: Super Bowl upset the highlight for profitable bookies
The Denver Broncos' surprise victory over the Carolina Panthers yesterday topped off a positive sporting weekend for the layers
An upset in last night’s Super Bowl 50 rounded off another strong weekend for the bookies after a host of odds-on favourites were defeated in Saturday’s football fixtures.
The Denver Broncos secured a third Super Bowl title on Sunday, beating heavy favourites the Carolina Panthers 24-10 in Santa Clara in what was a huge win for the bookies.
“Super Bowl 50 was the highlight of the weekend from a sports perspective and it couldn’t have been scripted any better for the layers,” Sky Bet’s head of PR, Sandro Di Michele, said.
“The Priceboost of a Cam Newton touchdown and Panthers win was obviously well beaten, as were most popular markets, and we returned a healthy profit on the match,” Di Michele added.
Most punters went with the favourites on the night, with a strong result in the antepost outrights and match markets leading to a six-figure profit at many operators.
“The Super Bowl was for us with a wide margin win for the underdogs,” Betway’s Alan Alger said said. However, Carolina backers have the consolation of a free bet with Betway as the margin of their defeat was greater than 13 points.
The Super Bowl was not the only big sporting fixture on Sunday, with Wales drawing 16-16 in the rugby Six Nations as last year’s winners Ireland squandered a 13-point lead.
“The Six Nations was fantastic. A draw is very rare indeed – although both sides were offered at Evens – and we scooped the lot on Sunday’s game,” William Hill’s Rupert Adams said.
And in the weekend’s football matches it was a tale of two halves for the bookmakers.
Just three of the 10 most popular selections won on Saturday in what was a bumper payday for the bookies, offsetting a less than successful Sunday which saw most of the favourites including Arsenal emerge victorious.
“Saturday was another great day for the books with City (v Leicester) and Liverpool (v Sunderland) great results and we were thrilled with the number of new and existing customers who took advantage of our new Price Promise football accumulator initiative over the weekend,” BetVictor’s head of communications, Charlie McCann, said.
“It didn’t cost us too much this weekend and Sunday’s late equaliser for Chelsea was a six-figure swing with United popular on the day,” McCann added.
At Ladbrokes, all eyes will now be on whether Leicester Cty can maintain its current momentum.
The company was the only bookmaker at the start of the season to offer 5,000/1 on Leicester winning the Premier League title, a team which has since seen its odds slashed following its win against Manchester City on Saturday.
“The dream is becoming a reality for Leicester fans. We’re staring down the barrel of a multi-million pound payout should they go on and achieve what all bookies deemed unthinkable at the start of the season,” Jessica Bridge, PR manager at Ladbrokes, said.
“It’s not every day of the week you get to lay a team like Leicester to win the title, at all rates down, but there’s still a few months to go so we find ourselves in the unusual position of cheering on former champions Man City for the title,” Bridge added.