Weekend Review: Layers satisfied with low-scoring Nations League

A weekend of Nations League football proved fruitful for bookmakers after a slew of bore draws and tight wins left punters disappointed. England’s 2-1 victory over Belgium, thanks to a Marcus Rashford penalty and a deflected effort from Mason Mount, as well as 0-0 draws between France and Portugal and Wales and Ireland, saw the layers come out on top.

A nice run out in the new boots 👟 thank you for bringing us luck @ButtonLane_ @PassmoresAc @BrunswickS13 ♥️ pic.twitter.com/JZtvAy0wU4

— Marcus Rashford (@MarcusRashford) October 11, 2020

Kindred Group’s Ali Gill said: “All told the Nations League went heavily in our favour, with all of the top five, and eight of the top 10 matches played, saw us in the black. The 0-0 draw between France and Portugal was the best result we saw, with another 0-0 draw between Bosnia and Netherlands only marginally behind. “England’s win against Belgium wasn’t entirely expected, especially with our Belgian players, so we also took a healthy margin there,” he added. Betway’s Chad Yeomans praised Wales and Ireland for leaving their shooting boots at home, as the pair ground out a 0-0 result in Dublin. He added: “Elsewhere in the Nations League, Wales were very well backed to beat Ireland, but neither side could find a way through, and with that game ending 0-0, it was a good result for us.”

FT | 🇮🇪 0-0 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

That's it. Full-time in Dublin.

An away point for Cymru, who remain top of their #NationsLeague group. #IRLWAL | #TogetherStronger pic.twitter.com/cJt9QGox5V

— Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 (@Cymru) October 11, 2020

However, in the horseracing world, punters had the last laugh as pre-race favourite Great White Shark duly obliged by securing victory in the Cesarewitch at Newmarket. Betfred’s Alan Firkins said: “The weekend’s tastiest events went very much the way of the punters at Betfred, as the great Willie Mullins added another ‘Ces’ with a very well-supported favourite.” Yeomans added: “The Cesarewitch is always a popular betting heat, but it was the Betway punters who were celebrating following a very strongly punted favourite in Great White Shark winning. “Great White Shark was as big as 12/1 on Monday but she went off the 9/2 favourite, making another big Saturday handicap a punter-friendly race.”

🦈 It's all about the shark!

Great White Shark eats them alive in the Together For Racing International Cesarewitch Handicap under @Jason7Watson1 👏

It's a third consecutive success in the big one for @WillieMullinsNH! pic.twitter.com/soGTHD6fbp

— Newmarket Racecourse (@NewmarketRace) October 10, 2020

Gill noted that Saturday had started off positively for the layers, but Great White Shark razed the gains made earlier in the day. He said: “On Saturday at Newmarket, there were contrasting fortunes in the two main races of the day. The Darley Dewhurst went the way of 10/1 shot St Mark’s Basilica leaving us ahead, but in the Cesarewitch, Great White Shark’s late surge and ultimately easy win was the last thing we wanted to see as punters had a field day.”