Weekend Review: Bookies count profits after Premier League’s top four falter
Defeats for Champions League-hopefuls Spurs and Arsenal help boost the books as Manchester United draw with Chelsea
Recent form suggests that nobody wants to qualify for next season’s Champions League after Tottenham, Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United record just one win in their last 12 combined.
The bookies have benefited from the Premier League quartet’s untimely dip in form, as thousands of accumulators fell at the first hurdle again this week when Spurs lost 1-0 at home to West Ham.
Arsenal could not capitalise on a loss for their North London rivals after getting thrashed 3-0 at Leicester City, while Manchester United and Chelsea played out a 1-1 draw with each other.
? 3 points this way @LCFC pic.twitter.com/D8UiCjpB0B
— Jamie Vardy (@vardy7) April 28, 2019
Kindred Group’s Ali Gill said the limp top four contest had seen the operator profit from every top-flight game this weekend, despite wins for relentless title chasers Liverpool and Manchester City.
He said: “It was a clean sweep in the Premier League this week. Spurs’ loss to West Ham was the biggest winner of the round, with Man Utd’s hope-ending draw to Chelsea not far behind.
“With some extraordinary pre-match odds in Liverpool’s match with Huddersfield, punters were really swinging for the fences which allowed us to squeeze out a small positive result.
It was a similar story for Betway, where Alan Alger said: “The Premier League weekend was bookended by two great results, West Ham United winning at Tottenham put paid to a lot of accumulators before the 3pm games got underway.
“Sunday’s draw between Man United and Chelsea was relatively unbacked and while City and Liverpool keep on winning, the punters are finding it hard to put any strong selections with them.”
William Hill’s Rupert Adams said the operator is expecting record turnover on Monday night’s Manchester City vs Leicester City clash.
All set for tomorrow….!!! Good luck everyone who is running @LondonMarathon Good night ??? #onemomile pic.twitter.com/9QgzpEJVD3
— Sir Mo Farah (@Mo_Farah) April 27, 2019
Ladbrokes’ Alex Apati said Mo Farah’s fifth place finish in Sunday’s London Marathon saw the operator breath a sigh of relief as the Olympic gold medallist is always well-backed by the public.
He said: “We took plenty – as always – on Farah winning the London Marathon while the wait for City or Liverpool to drop points continues.
“Thankfully the rest of the top six have all done their bit over the past ten days to prevent us from paying out on favourite-backer accas,” he added.