Weekend Review: Goals galore has punters celebrating
Layers suffer from glut of goals while fan favourite Sprinter Sacre piled on the misery at Sandown
Trading teams earned their money this weekend as a mixed set of football results saw some firms in clover and others with empty satchels.
BetVictor reported its “worst football weekend of the year”, with the FA Cup semi-finals proving particularly costly.
“Both teams to score was very popular in the two Wembley games and Anthony Martial’s last minute winner for Manchester United hurt the firm as much as it hurt Everton fans,” BetVictor’s Charlie McCann said.
“Man United was by far the worst result of the weekend,” added Betfred’s Peter Spencer.
William Hill also took it on the chin, despite the two most popular selections on Saturday, Liverpool and Middlesbrough, being held to home draws.
“Punters certainly got the better of us,” said Hills spokesperson Rupert Adams. “The number of goals around ensured we made heavy losses on the ‘both teams to score’ and ‘score and win’ markets.
“European results were particularly punter friendly with Spain’s ‘big three’ winning once again,” he added. “We did manage to claw back some of our losses on Sunday as Celtic and Arsenal failed to win but overall it was a weekend to forget for us as we continue to struggle towards the end of the season.”
Sky Bet, however, reported a much more positive performance – breaking even on Saturday and bashing punters on Sunday.
“Once the favourites Arsenal drew in the early kick-off we never looked back with other bookmaker friendly results such as Celtic helping us to a healthy profit,” Sandro Di Michele, Sky Bet PR manager, said.
The bookie also said Newcastle’s fightback at Liverpool to secure a draw had saved the firm ?4.2m with its popular Soccer Saturday Price Boost of a Southampton, Liverpool and Chelsea treble having looked good at half-time.
Ladbrokes also reported a “juicy six-figure profit” on Sunday thanks to Arsenal’s and Celtics’ failures.
The racing world’s attention was focused on Sandown where the old warhorse Sprinter Sacre rewarded faithful punters, backing up his Cheltenham triumph with another victory over Un de Sceaux in the bet365 Celebration Chase. “He’s cost us a small fortune this weekend,” said Ladbrokes Jessica Bridge.
The Sandown Gold Cup went the way of The Young Master – another bad result for the layers. “The afternoon was littered with well fancied selections, leaving the punters well in front,” Sky Bet’s Di Michele added.
In boxing, middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin continued his demolition of the division, improving his record to 35-0 with 32 knockouts. His second round KO of Dominic Wade handed Sky Bet a “significant loss” after the firm boosted “GGG” to 4/1 to win in the first two rounds.
Finally in snooker, traders will be watching Ronnie O’Sullivan with bated breath as he looks to battle back from a 9-7 deficit in a race to 13 against Barry Hawkins. Betfred’s Peter Spencer said the Rocket was by far the most popular choice to win the tournament among punters, but the firm would prefer him to progress further before being beaten to keep betting interest high.