Weekend Review: Bookies delight at Ronaldo penalty miss

Bookmakers enjoyed the weekend’s Euro 2016 action following more favourable results and Cristiano Ronaldo’s penalty miss a particular highlight.

Several bookies suffered big losses on the Euros last weekend, but results proved far more favourable for the layers this time around.

It was a “great” weekend for Ladbrokes, with Belgium’s victory the only dampener in what was a good set of results for the British bookie, which saw both France and Portugal fail to win.

“Ronaldo’s missed efforts and France’s poor showing last night topped off a great weekend of draws and kept the satchel full to the brim,” Ladbrokes’ Jessica Bridge said.

Bet365 also enjoyed Ronaldo’s penalty miss, which came as a huge surprise. “Ronaldo, so often the scourge of bookmakers, did us a huge favour by missing from 12 yards, coupled with a Belgium victory that saw an eight-figure swing in our favour, although we did give ?1.5m back on our cashback Bore Draw offer,” said Bet365’s Steve Freeth.

The operator revealed it has already given back over ?4m on its ‘Bore Draw’ cash back offer with the three goalless affairs and over ?10m due to its ‘In-Play’ concession.

However, the firm remains optimistic. “Without counting our chickens, we have our noses marginally in front,” added Freeth.

Ronaldo’s miss provided Unibet with its biggest swing of the tournament so far and made amends for the Belgium result. “Saturday didn’t start so well, we were hit by Belgium in the UK but nowhere near as bad as the global margin with our Belgian punters fully behind their team,” Unibet’s William Vickery said. “But we more than made up for this with the Iceland and Portugal draws,” he added.

William Hill enjoyed a “very good” weekend with regards to the football, with the only loser proving to be Belgium’s comfortable victory over Ireland.”All in all, it was the best we could have hoped for this weekend,” William Hill’s Rupert Adams said.

Meanwhile Dustin Johnson’s win at the US Open was well received at Betway after making money from other markets, but Ladbrokes is looking at a six-figure loss for the tournament.

“We’re crying out as much as McIlroy and Spieth at the decisions made yesterday at Oakmont, not that the penalty made much difference as Johnson was the worst result in out book,” said Bridge.

Elsewhere, Betway secured a narrow victory at Royal Ascot. “Five hard days of Royal Ascot ended on Saturday with us winning by what you could describe as somewhere between a neck and half a length,” said Betway’s Alan Alger.

“The bigger picture is that there were plenty of good stories and people wanted to be involved, almost to the same extent as Cheltenham,” said Alger. “Converting those racing fans to take an interest all year is worth the offset of the small amount we made on the week overall,” he added.

But William Hill said the race meeting ended honours even for them, and turnover was significantly down on last year due to the Euros.