Weekend Review: Bookies only winners in Cup final draw

Sunday’s League Cup final draw completed an excellent day for the bookies as the 1-1 stalemate, coupled with the defeat of a well-backed Arsenal side, enabled the layers to recoup much of Saturday’s football losses.

“Draws in big games are great for us, particularly low scoring ones,” Alan Alger, Betway PR manager, said.

“The 1-1 correct score for the League Cup final went relatively unbacked. In situations like that you’re only paying out on two goalscorers and Under 2.5 Goals isn’t a popular bet with punters with most preferring to go over.”

Ladbrokes was also grateful for Phillippe Coutinho’s late goal, which meant Liverpool and Manchester City had to play an additional 30 minutes.

“It’s very hard to lose on a cup final which is a draw after 90 minutes and the longer a game goes on for, the greater the in-play interest is too,” Alex Donohue, Ladbrokes PR manager, said.

Sunday’s other big game also went the bookies’ way, with punters piling their cash on to title contenders Arsenal to win at Old Trafford. In fact the one-sided betting action saw Manchester Utd go off at the biggest price they’ve ever been for a home league match against Arsenal, according to Betway.

“They [Manchester United] were friendless in the market, with punters mistakenly putting faith in a toothless Arsenal again,” said Alger.

The bumper Sunday was just the tonic for bookies after late goals for Chelsea and Leicester meant Saturday largely went the punters’ way.

Sky Bet said the two 89^th minute goals saw it pay out a cool ?5m thanks to its Soccer Saturday price boosts

And Betway also suffered a seven-figure swing on the Foxes’ late winner, after taking more bets on Leicester than on any other side in the so-called ‘Big Four’.

“Everybody wanted to be with Ranieri’s men and our chins hit the floor when [Leicester striker Leonardo]Ulloa scored,” said Alger.

William Hill saw its five most popular selections, Leicester, Stoke, Wigan, Burnley and West Ham all win, while Ladbrokes also found itself on the wrong side of Saturday’s results, although the bookie had one eye on its long-term positions.

“Ulloa’s goal was a costly one and broadly Saturday results didn’t go our way,” Donohue said.

“We don’t want Leicester to win the league but we do want the title race to stay as interesting as possible for as long as possible. Ideally they will just get pipped on the line – not very romantic but no apologies from us,” he added.

Saturday night was a feast for fight fans, with the Frampton vs Quigg super-bantamweight title-fight generating “huge interest” according to Sky Bet.

Bookmakers took a ‘no guts no glory approach’, with firms taking stands on both sides, which fittingly resulted in a split decision for the layers.

BetVictor “went out to get Quigg money” by boosting his price to 13/8, and saw the bookmaker land a nice windfall when Frampton took the judges’ split decision.

The Jackal winning on points was the also the “best possible result” for Sky Bet, but Betfred traders were left licking their wounds after offering Frampton at an industry best 4/5, costing the firm ?120,000. The volume on the boxing was said to have dwarfed the UFC fight night at London’s O2 arena.

Elsewhere, in the Six Nations all three favourites won outright, with England, Wales and Scotland all obliging for punters.

“With the favourites adding up to a very back-able treble price we took plenty on it and could have done with Italy or Ireland pulling something out of the bag,” Donohue said.

It was better news for BetVictor, which saw a flood of bets on Wales -9 and the bookmaker breathed a huge sigh of relief at the nine-point margin of victory over the French. “The draw on the handicap saved our bacon,” Charlie McCann, BetVictor head of communications, said.

The weekend’s racing was relatively quiet all round with the Cheltenham Festival just around the corner.

“Racing was fairly disappointing,” said William Hill’s Rupert Adams. “Theatre Guide [winner of Saturday’s BetBright Chase at Kempton] was very well backed all week and on the day, opening at 8/1 with an SP of 6/1.”