Weekend Review: Bookies edge World Cup qualifiers
Low-scoring England match helps the bookies, as layers also report a strong weekend in the racing post-Cheltenham
England’s 2-0 win against Lithuania yesterday failed to leave a bitter taste in bookies’ mouths following a much quieter weekend on the sporting front.
Defoe stole the back page headlines in this morning’s papers after the Sunderland striker celebrated his surprise 20th goal during England’s lower-scoring victory at Wembley Stadium.
“Most of the correct score bets we saw were for England to score more than the couple of goals they managed,” Betway’s Alan Alger said.
“International weekends usually kill the enthusiasm of football acca punters, but overall they did enjoy getting involved in the England game.”
BetVictor also said it had now shortened Defoe from 6s to 4/1 to make Gareth Southgate’s 23-man squad in Russia, while England are now 1/12 to qualify for next year’s World Cup in Group F.
Meanwhile, Kindred moved into Monday with a spring in its step thanks to a profitable weekend on all major sports. “We had some losses coming from England’s and Scotland’s football matches, but they were overcome from the rest of the football events,” commented Alexandros Gyftokostas.
On the racing front, Betway hailed “good activity on the cards” from Newbury and Lingfield on a post-Cheltenham Saturday it claims is “rarely inspiring”.
And Stan James also saw both turnover and margin continuing in a positive trend after a busy Cheltenham and culminating in the Dubai World Cup on Saturday.
In the golf, BetVictor reported Dustin Johnson had hardened from 6s to 5/1 for the Masters thanks to his successes in the WGC Matchplay at Austin Country Club in Texas.
“DJ is now 6/4 from 7/4 with BetVictor to win a major this season and will be difficult to beat if replicating this season’s outstanding level of form,” BetVictor’s Jack Milner said.
And with Jason Day, Jordan Spieth and Rory McIllroy all out, early punters latched onto DJ. “We didn’t have much to worry about thereafter,” Milner added.
“It’s the man he beat in the final that’s been the biggest mover with rookie John Rahm 22/1 from 33s to win the coveted green jacket at his very first attempt.”