Weekend Review: Sports Personality of the Year provides biggest upset of the weekend
Sir Mo Farah’s victory at the annual awards ceremony left both bookmakers and punters scratching their heads
Sir Mo Farah won the Sports Personality of the Year (SPOTY) award last night in a surprising result for both bookmakers and bettors alike.
The long distance runner was priced at 50/1 by bet365 to receive the trophy after a controversial year, while motorcyclist Jonathan Rea came second and para-athlete Jonnie Peacock came in third place.
“It was not the kind of SPOTY result we were expecting,” said bet365’s Steve Freeth.
“Our 1/12 shot Anthony Joshua finished outside the top three places, leaving 50/1 poke Mo Farah to take the spoils – we were as surprised as his coach.”
BetVictor’s Charlie McCann expressed similar shock at the SPOTY result, but added that punters could take solace from the fact former Holby City actor Joe McFadden won in the Strictly Come Dancing final after being priced as the favourite.
“Just when you don’t think a public vote can’t surprise you any more in the wake of Trump and Brexit, along comes last night’s SPOTY,” he said.
“Mo Farah was cut during the show from 33s to 20s as everything went wrong with his live interview from London.
“We actually took more bets on Farah than any other competitor, but it was only a small loss and the whole thing was a bit of a farce.
“At least the jolly old favourite won Strictly, but even that was unsatisfactory as the BBC wouldn’t reveal who finished in which places so that the beaten finalists “wouldn’t feel unpopular.”
Betway’s Alan Alger brought everyone back down to earth with some analysis of the weekend’s football results.
Leicester’s thrashing at the hands of Crystal Palace in Saturday’s early kick-off ruined most accumulators before they got going, while Celtic’s 69-match unbeaten run came to an abrupt end with a 4-0 defeat against Hearts.
“Most punters tried to kick off their accas with Leicester as home bankers, but nobody saw that result coming and it kicked off a good weekend for us instead,” said Alger.
“Punters who put Celtic in their bets as a matter of course also paid the price- for once.”