Weekend Review: Nothing to cheer for Premier League punters
Bookies experience massive wins in the football before losing out on Withhold’s victory in the Cesarewitch Handicap
The bookies enjoyed one of their most successful weekends of the year as punters were once again left cursing the unpredictability of the Premier League.
Liverpool’s 0-0 draw with Manchester United in Saturday’s early kick-off was a sign of things to come as Arsenal and Chelsea both lost favourable London fixtures against Watford and Crystal Palace.
Kindred Group recorded its biggest ever winning day on the Saturday and Ali Gill described the weekend as an “absolute frenzy for the bookmakers”.
“No surprises this was driven by the Premier League, where teams appeared to be determined to give City as much of a lead as possible in the league,” said Gill.
“Liverpool 0-0 United was a great start for us. From then on Chelsea and Arsenal both losing compounded punters misery on singles and accumulators, coupled with four draws across the round.”
BetVictor’s Jack Milner said it was one of the best weekends in recent memory, outside of the Euros and World Cup: “The phrase used by our head of trading was ‘you couldn’t make it up’ when asked how good the football results were this weekend.
“Starting with the stalemate at Anfield, which effectively wiped out everything, the results were one-way traffic after that.
“Defeats of Chelsea and Arsenal in ‘banker’ trips to Palace and Watford ensuring a terrific few days for the layers.”
William Hill had its best football day of the year courtesy of the Championship, as Leeds lost to Reading and basement club Bolton beat title challengers Cardiff on Friday night, eliminating the vast majority of accumulators before Saturday had even begun.
However, the majority of football winnings were severely dented by Withhold’s victory in the Cesarewitch Handicap on Sunday.
The horse, owned by renowned punter Tony Bloom, started the week at 33-1 and became 5-1 favourite before storming home to win at Newmarket.
Betfred sponsored the race and spokesperson Peter Spencer described the result as a “disaster”, while William Hill declared it one of its worst five racing days of the year.
“We are still adding up how much that one cost us,” said Hill’s Rupert Adams.