Weekend Review: Bookies reap profits from Super Sunday deadlocks

A string of draws on football’s Super Sunday rounded off a dream couple of days for the bookmakers, with William Hill describing it as “the best weekend in months”.

Saturday generated good returns across the industry, despite well-fancied Manchester City hammering Chelsea, with plenty of lower league matches going against the punter.

“Wigan and Oxford were both really well backed and they lost so even though Premier League results were not fantastic we still managed to make a good profit,” said William Hill spokesperson Rupert Adams.

But Sunday was even better with the three televised domestic games ending in draws. “They call it Super Sunday for a reason when something like that happens,” said Ladbrokes’ Jessica Bridge. “Overall a very profitable weekend.”

Punters who had struck out on the early games put their faith in Barcelona in the Sunday nightcap, but the Catalans were turned over at home, putting the “icing on the cake” according to bet365.

“Barcelona have gone from nemesis to top of our Christmas card list in a month,” said bet365 trading PR officer Steve Freeth. “Maybe we didn’t give Arsenal enough credit since that defeat at the Camp Nou in March – the wheels have come off Messi and co. since!”

One of the few bookies not celebrating this weekend was Betfred, which said the favourable final scores were nullified by first goal scorer derivatives.

The firm said hat-trick hero Sergio Aguero cost them around ?250,000 by scoring first, with payouts trebled thanks to its Hat-Trick Heaven offer.

“Sergio Aguero was our nemesis last year, costing us around ?700,000, and he was at it again on Saturday,” said the firm’s spokesperson Peter Spencer.

“Vardy scoring first also hurt us, as did Sanchez in the Arsenal match. Overall it was a break-even football weekend for us.”

The Scottish Grand National was the highlight of an otherwise quiet sporting weekend, with another unfancied outsider romping home.

“Vincente was near enough friendless in the Scottish National and for two weeks running we’ve dodged some major payouts on heavily backed National favourites,” said Ladbrokes’ Bridge. “Turnover was up 18% YoY which is pleasing to see.”

However Paul Nicholls, who trained Vicente, had three other winners on the card, giving multiples backers some joy.

Elsewhere, big names Stephen Maguire and Shaun Murphy, as well as defending champion Stuart Bingham, were dumped out of the snooker World Championship in the first round.

“Early favourites crashing out of the snooker rounded off the weekend just nicely,” added Bridge. “It was most definitely one for layers.”