Weekend Review: Liverpool bore draw provides a thrill for the bookies
Kindred takes the spoils of Premier League punting as Ladbrokes loses out at Sandown on Saturday
The bookies couldn’t have asked for a better start to the weekend on Saturday morning as Liverpool produced an after-the-Lord-Mayor’s-show performance in their 0-0 draw with struggling Stoke at Anfield.
Liverpool put their Champions League opponents Roma to the sword 5-2 on Tuesday night, but looked worn and weary while failing to find the net against the Potters.
The Merseyside club’s Mohamed Salah scored twice against Roma, taking his tally to 43 goals for the season, but the Egyptian missed a one-on-one in the early stages against an all-but-relegated Stoke City side to leave the layers well ahead.
34: @MoSalah goes close again! This time the Egyptian whips a free-kick into the side-netting at the near post.
[0-0]#LIVSTK pic.twitter.com/vZfihRSFe8— Liverpool FC (@LFC) April 28, 2018
“We had a very good set of results this weekend in the Premier League as we came out ahead in eight of the nine games played,” said Kindred Group’s Ali Gill.
“Man City’ demolition of West Ham was the only one for the punters to get excited about and it was no huge shock that the biggest win for Kindred was Liverpool’s home draw with Stoke.
“0-0 is always the perfect results for the layers, and this one took a fair few accumulators with it too,” he added.
It was a similar story for Ladbrokes where Alex Apati told EGR: “This weekend was the calm after the storm following last week’s royal baby madness.
“We got off to a really solid start on the football front with Liverpool dropping points in a home draw.”
WHAT. A. MATCH. ?@TheCaptain147 secures his first ranking victory over @ronnieo147 in a Crucible classic that had it all!
He comes out a 13-9 winner, through to the quarter finals of the @Betfred World Championship! #ilovesnooker pic.twitter.com/HRwiDMnEGO
— World Snooker (@WorldSnooker1) April 28, 2018
Ladbrokes experienced mixed fortunes this weekend elsewhere as favourites Ronnie O’Sullivan and Mark Selby lost out in the snooker but Lewis Hamilton raced home in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Apati said: “It was a perfect start to the week at the Crucible as Ronnie and Selby were the two best-backed names – although Hamilton winning in Azerbaijan meant we ended up down in racing world.”
The operator also had a weekend to forget in the horseracing at Sandown: “It was a bad weekend as far as the horses were concerned with plenty of favourites landing at Sandown in the shape of Top Notch, Altior and Call Me Lord,” added Apati.
A pat from Nicky Henderson and a huge crowd to cheer for Altior who wins the Celebration Chase, his 14th win in a row! pic.twitter.com/E0Cg4N1qgT
— Sandown Park (@Sandownpark) April 28, 2018
“All three were among the best-backed horses of the day on Saturday, plus Cracksman winning in France didn’t do us any favours.”