Weekend Review: Lions’ late heroics trigger six-figure swing for bookies

The British and Irish Lions kicked a late penalty to beat the vaunted All Blacks 24-21 as 13 point underdogs, giving patriotic punters a hefty windfall in the process.

Ladbrokes said the result cost it £500k with customers backing the Lions on the handicap and straight up at around 4/1.

Betway also reported a terrible result on the game, made worse by the tantalising prospect of the draw, which would have been a £100k winner for the firm.

Rugby Union bettors will get the chance to do it all over again this weekend, with the All Blacks still around 2/9 to win the series on Saturday morning.

The other big event of the weekend was the Confederations Cup final, with Germany beating Chile 1-0.

The game itself saw varying outcomes for the layers as Ladbrokes said a Germany win was the poorest of three main outcomes in the 90 minutes, while Kindred reported a “strong positive result” thanks to an early goal followed by a lack of any real action, meaning bets such as the over goals market and second half bets went its way.

The ante post book on the tournament however was unanimously unfavourable, with the two favourites going head to head in the final.

The Germans did win some favour back with the bookies by defeating heavy favourites Spain in Friday’s U21 final.

In the weekend’s racing, BetVictor reported a “Saturday of two halves”.

“Come mid-afternoon and favourite backers couldn’t go wrong but come the Irish Derby and the tide had turned and Capri’s classic success was symbolic of the change in punters’ fortunes,” said BetVictor’s Charlie McCann.

“Sunday’s results were favourable and it was a winning weekend for the layers – but it didn’t look like that at one stage on Saturday,” he added.

In golf, Tommy Fleetwod winning the Open de France was a big loser for Betway, while Kyle Stanley’s victory stateside in the Quicken Loans National was a big winner for the firm.