Weekend Review: Liverpool defeat leaves bookmakers beaming as £1m matched on Cheltenham cancellation

It was a weekend to savour for the bookies as a reality-check defeat for Premier League leaders Liverpool against relegation-threatened Watford left punters rubbing their eyes in disbelief.

With the champions elect on an 18-game winning streak and Watford sitting in the bottom three, no one expected the Hornets to triumph 3-0 over a side which were undefeated in the top flight this season.

Wow what a result that was, best team performance from a Watford side, Sarr what a player you are going to be 💥 everybody put a shift proud of you boys, played hard but fair, now we go again 💪🏽💪🏽 pic.twitter.com/CLc2wGyXUl

— Troy Deeney (@T_Deeney) March 1, 2020

Kindred Group’s Ali Gill said: “The headline of course was Liverpool finally tasting defeat, and the opponents made it even harder to swallow for punters as we came out miles ahead there, and of course it took almost every accumulator going with it as well.”

Defeats for Champions League chasing Spurs and Leicester, as well as Chelsea drawing with Bournemouth, further widened the smile on bookmaker faces.

Gill added: “Leicester and Spurs losing, and Chelsea drawing were things only layers were looking for in a weekend to forget for players.”

Betfred’s Peter Spencer told EGR Intel of one punter who won more than £600 after backing Watford to win.

“We had one pensioner punter in North London select Ismaïla Sarr to score first and Watford to win 3-0 at 275/1. He put a £4 bet on and won £684 in return.”

The Carabao Cup final between Manchester City and Aston Villa saw City win the competition for the third year in succession following a 2-1 victory.

Spencer noted that despite the favourites winning, a lot of punters had backed City to win to nil and also score far more than just two goals – leaving bookies with a silver lining on the day.

And there we have it. Over £1m matched on whether #Cheltenham will take place. Circa 3x that matched on the Gold Cup itself. #coronavirusuk pic.twitter.com/VX1yFPPEf7

— Guy Harding (@GuyHardingBC) March 1, 2020

Elsewhere, more than £1m was matched on the Betfair Exchange market over whether horseracing and Cheltenham Festival would go ahead on 10 March, as fears of cancellation mount due to the coronavirus outbreak and more wet weather.

Cancellation of the festival would be catastrophic for bookmakers, which are waiting patiently for a decision and preparing as normal.

Betfair’s Barry Orr told EGR: “The market has been a good barometer for people to contextualise, in odds and percentages, the chances of Cheltenham going ahead on Tuesday as planned.

“Considering it’s not even a week since we introduced it, the fact it has been one of the most viewed/visited markets in the history of the Exchange is an indication of how important Cheltenham is to our customers and to people who just want to understand the numerical chances of it being on/off.”

Kindred’s Gill added: “Cheltenham being cancelled would of course be an absolute disaster for fans, backers and layers alike. However, at this point it’s nothing more than speculation and preparation goes ahead as normal.”

Spencer added that operators were “waiting” for a response from the emergency COBRA meeting called by Boris Johnson today.