Weekend review: England Grand Slam adds to bookies' Cheltenham woes

A Grand Slam for Eddie Jones’ England side saw more pain inflicted on bookmakers this weekend, just days after the industry endured one of the worst Cheltenham Festivals ever.

Betfred told eGaming Review it lost ?7m during the four-day racing meet, calling it “possibly the worst festival for 10 years”. And the bookie’s pain was compounded by England’s Six Nations clean sweep which cost the firm “a fortune”, as it reported increased interest in rugby union following the resurgence of the Red Rose.

It was a similar story for Ladbrokes, which was also counting the cost of the England victory. “We’re not asking for the violins,” said Ladbrokes PR officer Jessica Bridge. “But as if bookies hadn’t been bashed and broken enough by punters at Cheltenham they came back this weekend to play up their winnings and plenty of them took even more money out of the Magic Sign satchel.

“After a pathetic World Cup, England’s Grand Slam cost us a fortune as patriotic punters piled into their hopes antepost of a huge resurgence under new gaffer Eddie Jones,” Bridge added.

Sky Bet said it lost about ?50,000 on the Grand Slam, having boosted England from 7/2 to 9/2 pre-event, while the final weekend of the Six Nations saw all three favourites win and cover the handicap, costing it another ?94,000.

However, as they have been all year, the layers were rescued by friendly football results.

Betway reported something of a bounce back weekend after a “brutal” Cheltenham Festival, with six of the 10 Barclays Premier League matches settled as a ‘NO’ on the increasingly popular ‘Both Teams to Score’ market. The best result of the weekend for the firm came at St Marys, where Liverpool threw away a two-goal lead to lose 3-2.

“Southampton reached a price of 50/1 at 2-0 down before they shocked Liverpool and filled up our satchels,” Betway’s PR manager Alan Alger said. “[It was] a great weekend after a horror week,” he added.

Sky Bet said its best result came from the Championship, where Burnley was the most popular team in punter’s Saturday accumulators. However, the league leaders conceded an injury time equaliser “to shatter the dreams of the betting public”, according to Sky Bet head of PR Sandro Di Michele.

Chelsea, Man City, Barca, PSG and AC Milan all failed to win over the weekend, contributing to “very healthy profit” for the Leeds-based bookie.

“After a very tough week of results at Cheltenham we started to claw back the losses with this weekend’s football results,” said Di Michele.

William Hill reported a slight profit over the weekend, thanks to the football results on Sunday, but the firm’s PR manager Rupert Adams warned: “It is going to take a great run of results for us to get back the Cheltenham losses”.

Elsewhere the Formula 1 season kicked off in Australia, with Lewis Hamilton beaten as a 2/5 favourite after a poor start from pole position. The upset netted a cool ?20,000 for Sky Bet which dangled a priceboost carrot on Hamilton to win and set the fastest lap at 7/4.

Horseracing results were favourable across the industry with Saturday’s feature race, the Midlands National at Uttoxeter, won by the friendless Firebird Flyer at 16-1.