Weekend Review: Bookies hail the magic of the FA Cup

The third round of the FA Cup is a famous fixture in the UK football calendar and the action this weekend did not disappoint with some huge wins and some even bigger upsets.

Tottenham Hotspur kicked off proceedings on Friday night with a stunning 7-0 victory over League Two side Tranmere Rovers which included a rare hat-trick from Fernando Llorente.

Kindred Group’s Ali Gill said: “Spurs’ 7-0 drubbing of Tranmere was exactly what the punters wanted to see, the Overs goals and Spurs’ clean sheet completing the perfect result for them.”

Premier League title holders Manchester City matched Spurs’ result on Sunday, smashing Rotherham United for seven in a match where 18-year-old Phil Foden scored his first goal at Etihad Stadium.

Special moment for me and a class team performance 🙌🏼 pic.twitter.com/eKMGfPpZPf

— Phil Foden (@PhilFoden) January 6, 2019

But it was the big upsets of the third round, including Leicester’s defeat at Newport and Oldham’s win at Fulham, which delighted both the bookies and the neutrals.

Gill added: “Leicester’s shock loss to Newport County was our biggest win of the round and, as is usually the case in the third round of the FA Cup, shocks, draws and the big teams struggling with weak teams left us way in the black overall.”

It was a similar story at William Hill where Rupert Adams said the operator enjoyed a fantastic weekend thanks to the unpredictability of England’s oldest cup competition.

“On Saturday we had an excellent day despite the five most popular selections winning as they were mostly extremely short prices. Cardiff’s loss at Gillingham, Norwich’s loss to Portsmouth and Newcastle’s home draw with Blackburn ensured it was a profitable day for us,” said Adams.

“Also, there weren’t too many goals so ‘both to score’ and other goals markets went well from our point of view. Sunday was also an above average day with Sheffield Utd’s loss to Barnet the highlight along with shock defeats for Leicester and Fulham to lower league opposition, so at the moment we very much like the FA Cup,” he added.

🙌#BarnetFC 🐝 pic.twitter.com/iKDUdnglIG

— Barnet FC 🐝 (@BarnetFC) January 6, 2019

It was a different story for Betfred though which lost more than £500,000 on the third round, according to the firm’s Peter Spencer. He said: “Fans of underdog teams were happy to back their teams in the hope of a dream day out and there was basically too many upsets.”

Spencer also revealed that Liverpool are third favourites to win the FA Cup with their third round match to come against Wolves this evening. The Reds are 100-1 with Betfred to match Manchester United’s treble winning 1999 season and it is reportedly proving a popular bet on Merseyside.

The gaff of the weekend undoubtedly went to one Ladbrokes punter who cashed out a £5 FA Cup accumulator for £5k instead of holding on to win £85k after Newport’s 2-1 win over Leicester.