Weekend Review: Big Sam's England debut struggles to attract the punters
Bookies see reduced turnover for Three Lions' World Cup qualifier, while late winner dents margins
Sam Allardyce’s first game as England manager struggled to draw in the punters with several bookies reporting lower than usual turnover, while Adam Lallana’s late strike ensured it was an unhappy weekend for the layers.
In England’s first competitive game since losing to Iceland in Euro 2016, William Hill saw interest levels drop compared to the Three Lions’ last outing against Slovakia in the group stage of the summer tournament.
“Turnover for the game was about 20% of the turnover for the same match during the Euros so you could say that very much interest has waned since the poor showing in France,” said William Hill’s Joe Crilly.
Despite dwindling interest, Adam Lallana’s first international goal to give England victory equated to around a million pound swing, according to Crilly.
“A draw was a good result, an England win was a shocker both on singles and running up on to other bets,” added Crilly.
Unibet also reported “reduced turnover” on the match, but its enhanced England and Scotland acca was well-backed, much to the delight of punters.
“Overall the book was positive but the late winner did reduce the margin significantly,” said Unibet’s William Vickery.
And BetVictor was left rueing the Liverpool star’s last-gasp strike, but remained unconvinced by the Three Lions’ chances in the long term.
“England got punters out of jail on Sunday, beating Slovakia with the last kick of the game; much to the dismay of bookmakers,” said BetVictor’s Jack Milner.
“The Three Lions were well backed at even money in Big Sam’s opening game as the Three Lions’ head coach and despite scoring for punters at the weekend, BetVictor remained unconvinced about England’s long term chances; leaving them unchanged at 14/1 for World Cup success in Russia and trimmed to 7/4 from 5/2 to go unbeaten in qualifying,” added Milner.
The World Cup qualifier also marked Ladbrokes’ first as official England bookmaker, and it saw turnover rise following its “Money back on first goal, correct score and HT/FT if the game ended in a draw” promotion.
“The last gasp winner definitely swung the day hugely in favour of the fans, but given our association with the FA and the team we will be cheering on every victory regardless of our position,” said Ladbrokes’ Alex Donohue.
“The 5pm Sunday kick-off was favourable and the turnover was much needed on an otherwise typically quiet international weekend,” he added.