Weekend Review: France victory gives bookies les bleus

France’s emphatic quarter-final victory over Iceland took the shine off what was a good weekend of trading for the bookies, while Novak Djokovic’s shock exit from Wimbledon has seen a flurry of punters backing Andy Murray for glory.

Betfred’s Peter Spencer described yesterday’s result in Paris as a “nightmare” for the British bookie, losing around a quarter of a million pounds.

“Oliver Giroud proved all French and Arsenal fans wrong, and he was heavily backed as first goal scorer and France to win at 9/1.”

The high scoring affair didn’t go down too well with bet365. “It was the worst result of the quarter finals and cost us to the tune of several million,” Steve Freeth, bet365 trading PRO, said.

And Wales advancing into the semi-final of the European Championships caused growing concern at Ladbrokes, despite Jessica Bridge calling the weekend’s football results as “superb” for the firm.

“Wales are currently our worst result in the book and we face a hefty six-figure payout on the France – Griezmann double having been 20/1 antepost,” said Bridge.

There were some seeds of comfort for Unibet, however, with results improving from the last 16 round of games.

“Germany’s victory on penalties from Italy was the highest turnover match out of the four and gave us the best margin,” said Unibet’s William Vickery.

“France’s demolition of Iceland yesterday wasn’t far behind in terms of turnover and we’re always happy to see a match go the full distance with Poland vs Portugal also giving us a notable margin.”

BetVictor is gearing up to give away ?1m on the final as part of its The Million Pound Goal Euro 2016 promotion. “The books are just holding sway over the punter so far and we are actually cheering on Les Bleus in the outright book,” said BetVictor’s Charlie McCann.

Djokovic’s surprise defeat to American Sam Querry proved a “good result” for Betfred – he was evens to win the tournament.

The Serbian’s exit from SW19 has seen Andy Murray installed as the new favourite, with Roger Federer’s odds narrowing too – both a big liability for Unibet.

“Djokovic was not the biggest risk we had, this was Federer and has now subsequently increased off the back of the Serb’s shock defeat but Murray is now clear favourite and our well backed pre-tournament Murray boost to 5.00 is looking good for our customers,” said Vickery.

Ladbrokes’ Bridge adds: “We lost a few quid on Querry, especially as overnight Djokovic was still 4/7 at 2-0 down, but we are not complaining as turnover was great.

“Looking ahead to today, an awful lot of Murray-Federer doubles are knocking around as punters clearly see the pair as buying money.”

The reigning champion’s departure helped BetVictor, but one of its punters had a successful four-figure 16-fold on the second round, which has “hurt” the firm.

It may only be at the half way point of the year, but Betfred has already seen bets placed for BBC Sports Personality of the Year, with Murray now leapfrogging Jamie Vardy as favourite after topping the Wimbledon betting markets.

“The market for Sports Personality of the Year is becoming quite lively now, Murray’s favourite at 7/2, Bale is 4/1 as is [Anthony] Joshua. Vardy, who was favourite, has been knocked down, probably because of England’s debacle at Euro 2016. Of course, we’ve still got the Olympics to come, but the big mover here is Andy Murray.”