Weekend Review: Man City fancied for the quad as UK racing comes “back with a bang”
Money continues to flood in for City to win all four competitions at 16-1 as horse racing resumes after equine flu outbreak
Punters are piling in on Manchester City to win the quadruple this season after Pep Guardiola’s side beat Newport County 4-1 in the FA Cup fifth round over the weekend.
City are the bookies’ favourites in all four competitions they are competing in this season; the Premier League, the Champions League, the FA Cup and the League Cup.
Betfred’s Peter Spencer said: “Man City have been cut to 16-1, there is loads of money piling in because they are favourites in just about every competition going at the moment.
“At the beginning of the season they were 150-1, but people are still taking the price at 16-1 because of their squad strength – Mahrez was PFA player of the year two years ago and he can’t get a game.”
Spencer also revealed that Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk is the favourite to win the PFA Player of the Year award with voting set to get underway soon.
He would become the first defender to win the award since Chelsea’s John Terry in 2004-05.
City’s win over Newport, in which 18-year-old starlet Phil Foden scored twice, was also the most traded match on the Betdaq exchange this weekend.
Very happy with the win against a tough team and especially with the goals 🙌🏼 Onto the quarter finals now. Get in there 💙🎯 pic.twitter.com/L6dQ4i032f
— Phil Foden (@PhilFoden) February 16, 2019
Betdaq’s head of marketing Robert Connolly said: Manchester City’s quadruple pursuit continues and the late goals in their victory against Newport County meant punter interest was sustained until the final whistle at Rodney Parade.
“The fixture was busiest FA Cup match on the exchange, attracting almost a quarter of the bets placed on the competition this weekend,” he added.
Kindred Group’s Ali Gill said the City match was their only winning FA Cup fixture of the round after the Premier League clubs dominated proceedings with barely a shock in sight.
“Man City’s win over Newport County was our biggest tie of the round and we managed to squeeze a small win out of that one, the over 4.5 away goals being a popular market and not many punters expecting Newport to score,” said Gill.
“However, that was the exception to the rule as we lost on all the other ties over the weekend without a single shock or draw.”
UK horse racing returned this weekend after the recent breakout of equine flu and Saturday proved to be a bumper day for the sport.
Cyrname put on yet another sensational performance for @PFNicholls yesterday, winning the Grade 1 @Betfair #Ascot chase by a huge 17 lengths! pic.twitter.com/vJf4nICJJo
— Ascot Racecourse (@Ascot) February 17, 2019
Kindred Group’s Gill said: “The Betfair Ascot Chase was the biggest race for us and Cyrname’s stunning performance to beat favourite Waiting Patiently by 17 lengths was exactly what we wanted to see.
“However, the second two races in the ranking, the Denman Chase and the Betfair hurdle, were won by well-fancied and well-backed favourites and we took a hit there.”
Betdaq added that UK racing was “back with a bang” after a total of £3.7m was traded on Ascot’s bumper card on Saturday while another £2.5m was matched on the exchange for the meeting at Haydock.