Weekend Review: Mixed results for bookies despite FA Cup shocks
William Hill suffers “below average” weekend, while bet365 endures a tough time on the golf front
Bookies were left to rue a missed opportunity as Saturday’s FA Cup upsets were outweighed by punter-friendly results on Sunday.
William Hill said it suffered a “below average weekend” despite the number of favourable results in the FA Cup on Saturday, making only a small profit on the day.
“Sunday was bad for us with the popular Man United and Tottenham both winning and Ibrahimovic’s late goal a massive swing in the punters’ favour,” said William Hill’s Rupert Adams.
“We lost on Sunday despite some respite with PSG failing to win and it was a disappointing weekend overall for us.”
On the other hand, Ladbrokes said football results were “brilliant” despite Sunday’s double of United and Spurs favouring the punters and said interest in the Cup was very high.
“Manchester City drawing was definitely the biggest result for us,” Ladbrokes’ Alex Donohue said.
“Lincoln winning actually wasn’t the best for us as people were backing them as singles, but the City draw knocked down a number of accumulators.”
Meanwhile, Barcelona-conquerors PSG’s goalless affair with Toulouse provided bet365 with a much needed boost on Sunday.
However, the Stoke-based operator described it as a weekend to forget on the golf front, with American Dustin Johnson claiming victory at the Genesis Open and Brett Rumford capturing the inaugural World Super 6 title.
“It was a very bad weekend on the golf with numerous four & five figure wagers on Dustin Johnson while Brett Rumford was also backed at 50/1 and 33/1 with many also backing the double,”
Elsewhere, both Ladbrokes and William Hill endured a “quiet” weekend on the horse racing.
“On the horse racing front, we’re starting to see people keep tight until Cheltenham comes along so it wasn’t really a bumper weekend even though the big stars were out in force,” said Donohue.