Weekend Review: Premier League draw fest is a dream for the layers
Conor McGregor’s victorious UFC return barely makes a dent after five top-flight draws
Bookmakers have hailed another winning weekend after there were five draws in the Premier League on Saturday.
Champions Manchester City drew 2-2 with Crystal Palace after being pegged back by a late own goal, while Arsenal drew at home to Sheffield United and Spurs drew a blank in a 0-0 at Watford.
Elsewhere, Brighton could only manage a 1-1 home draw with Aston Villa, after West Ham’s clash with Everton finished by the same scoreline.
Disappointed because I think we deserved more.. Time to prepare for the derby on Tuesday !! Thanks for your support 🙌🏾💪🏾🔴♣️ pic.twitter.com/okXkCOLkUy
— Alexandre Lacazette (@LacazetteAlex) January 19, 2020
Kindred Group’s Ali Gill said: “Weekends don’t get much better for layers in the Premier League and we certainly had a great one, with five draws, two of the top four being beaten and only Liverpool coming good for any type of acca.
“Spurs’ draw with Watford was our biggest winner of the round, with the added bonus of a 0-0, but Leicester’s defeat to Burnley in the televised game on Sunday and Man City’s draw with Palace weren’t far behind, in a week where we managed a full clean sweep of 10 winning results,” he added.
It was a similar story for William Hill, where Rupert Adams described it as a “very good weekend on the footie”.
“On Saturday we had Arsenal and City to thank and on Sunday it was Inter Milan and Burnley,” Adams added.
Ladbrokes’ Alex Apati told EGR Intel: “As for the football, five draws in the Prem on Saturday was pretty handy!
“We almost had a perfect day before Isaac Hayden netted a Newcastle winner. A couple of nil nils bookending the 3pm kick-offs would have been brilliant,” he added.
Away from football, Irish UFC fighter Conor McGregor made a frightening return to the Octagon as he beat US opponent Donald Cerrone in just 40 seconds in Las Vegas.
Business trip complete. #UFC246 pic.twitter.com/QfIipoVq46
— UFC (@ufc) January 19, 2020
Referee Herb Dean stepped in and ended the fight inside one minute after the 31-year-old struck a series of blows.
Hills’ Adams said: “Conor was OK, we took over half a million and lost £100,000 on him winning in 60 seconds but got it all back elsewhere.”
Kindred’s Gill said of the contest: “In McGregor’s big UFC return, the spread of offer looks to have saved us, as punters swung for some value outside the 1X2.
“The Irishman gave them no time to have a chance, however, and his 40-second KO allowed us to finish ahead on the hotly anticipated fight.”
Apati of Ladbrokes added: “No surprises with the McGregor fight – Cerrone was in fact more popular in the match betting (we put that down to McGregor being priced so short), however an early McGregor win was something we were looking to avoid.”
Hills broke even in the horseracing on Saturday, with better results on the Sunday. Willie Mullins-trained Footpad was beaten in the final race after going off at odds of 1/3, although Defi Du Seuil, one of the most popular picks of the day with punters at Ascot, triumphed to strike a late blow.