Weekend Review: Bookies report soaring volume on FA Cup final
Cup final draws across Europe has bookies in clover, while McIlroy's win in Ireland the best result for the punters
A 90-minute stalemate in the FA Cup final had bookies across the UK celebrating, with the draw the best outcome according to the industry.
“A magnificent weekend of football results, despite Manchester United being heavily backed in extra-time,” said BetVictor’s Charlie McCann.
“Results went extremely well for us,” added William Hill’s Rupert Adams. “Even though well fancied Man Utd won the FA Cup, the fact that they needed extra time to do so was good for us with most customers betting on them to win inside 90 minutes.”
Ladbrokes was one of the only major operators not celebrating the draw, as it was hit by its offer of money back if both teams scored in 90 minutes. However, the operator reported a big uptick in turnover on pre-game and in-play markets.
“Holding the Cup on a separate day to a Premier League card is huge for turnover and plenty of our customers thought Palace would deliver the fairytale, meaning United to lift the trophy wasn’t as bad a result as we may have feared,” said Ladbrokes’ Alex Donohue.
“The game was also a particularly good one from an in-play perspective as everyone backed United when they went a goal down, but to win the game in 90 minutes rather than overall.”
BetVictor also reported excellent volume on the back of its new Million Pound goal campaign. “We were delighted with the number of first-time depositor’s on the final,” said McCann.
England’s Sunday night friendly against Turkey saw about a third of the volume of the Cup Final according to Betfred, with the operator saying a 2-1 win for England with Kane to score first was about the worst result possible.
From a European perspective, a draw in all four major cup finals (FA Cup, Cope del Rey, German Cup & Italian Cup) this weekend was great for the bookies but all four favourites eventually won giving something back to our punters, according to Unibet’s William Vickery.
The Swedish operator also reported great turnover on the conclusion of the Ice Hockey World cup, and predicted “our biggest grand slam yet” for the ongoing French Open tennis tournament.
Meanwhile, Rory McIlroy’s win in the Irish Open helped punters regain some coin, with BetVictor and Betfred reporting the Northern Irishman was the worst result possible. Betfred even boosted the Ulsterman from 5/4 to 2/1 ahead of the final round. “We got that one wrong,” admitted Betfred’s Peter Spencer.
David Hayes’ fight on Dave on Saturday night did little to capture the public’s betting interest, while England’s domination in the cricket even forced BetVictor to introduce new markets as to when the next test will end.
“We don’t expect to see many draws this summer with Sri Lanka and Pakistan the opposition unless it rains for a couple of days,” McCann said.
Interest in the weekend racing was slightly muted according to Ladbrokes, although Saturday went the layers’ way, as big favourites Mecca’s Angel & Galileo Gold failed to fire.