Weekend review: “Nationwide gamble” on Ballyandy stings bookies
Racing punters win big at Newbury but defiant Burnley bust football coupons
A Super Saturday for racing punters spoiled an otherwise profitable weekend of trading for the bookies.
Coral’s Simon Clare said Saturday’s racing threw up “grim results”, with Altior, Ballyandy and Native River among a string of favourites winning at the feature meet of the day in Newbury.
“Normally testing ground throws up shocks,” Clare said. “Not today!”
BetVictor’s Charlie McCann said the Ballyandy result in particular hurt the layers, with Nigel Twiston-Davies’ runner the subject of a “nationwide gamble”.
Round two of the rugby Six Nations had punters and layers chewing the nails to stubs, with two games landing on, or within a point of, the handicap.
BetVictor said it was a profitable outcome for them, with the Scotland game landing exactly on their handicap of +6 and punters losing on both sides.
However England closed as -4 favourites at some shops after laying 5 for much of the week, and their last minute try and conversion to win by five was a “killer” for Ladbrokes.
“The three favourites won so the treble, which was about 5/4, also came in quite heavily,” Bridge said. “Ireland winning by 53 didn’t help either and there was a big public gamble on Hogg 1st tryscorer which was a nightmare too.”
In the Premier League, William Hill said it came out in front, with Saturday’s football winnings bigger than Sunday’s losses.
“Saturday was a pretty good day for us despite the popular Man United, Arsenal and Brighton all winning,” Hills’ Rupert Adams said. “Key results in our favour were Everton, Derby, Scunthorpe and Leeds all failing to win.”
It was a similar story at BetVictor, where McCann said: “The Championship saved us on Saturday whilst Chelsea’s draw at Turf Moor meant punters didn’t have everything their own way yesterday.”
Ladbrokes’ Jessica Bridge confirmed: “Chelsea’s failure to break down Burnley was welcomed with incredibly loud cheers at Ladbrokes HQ.”
However, the weekend’s golf went the punters’ way, with the well-backed Jordan Spieth storming to victory at Pebble Beach.
“The golf Stateside was a disaster with Jordan Spieth winning and the places even worse – the European tour would have been better had anyone been interested in getting up in the middle of the night to see Danny Willet implode,” McCann said.