Weekend Review: Punters gain upper hand on last weekend of Premier League season

The final weekend of what has been a peculiar Premier League season largely went the way of the punters as most favourites did the business in the usual coordinated 4pm kick-offs on Sunday. There were victories for champions Manchester City (3/10), Liverpool (1/7), Arsenal (5/7), West Ham (3/4), and Leeds United (4/7), although plenty of accas were tripped up by Chelsea’s (4/9) shock defeat away at Aston Villa. FA Cup winners Leicester City (5/6) were beaten 4-2 at home to Tottenham, leaving the Foxes in fifth place, one point behind Chelsea, while Liverpool’s 2-0 win over Crystal Palace meant they finished third after being well off the pace a couple of months ago amid a title-defence season plagued by injuries. Kindred Group’s Alistair Gill said: “The punters took the spoils in the final weekend, as by and large the favourites got it done. It wasn’t a complete disaster as our highest turnover match was Villa’s defeat of Chelsea, which landed us a healthy margin on that one as well as knocking out a large chunk of final day accas.” He added: “But punters seemed to fancy Leicester to choke again in pursuit of Champions League, which they did, to help record our biggest loss of the round, whilst Liverpool, Arsenal, Man Utd, City, West Ham and Leeds all got the job done.”

Heading into the @ChampionsLeague next season like… 🤩 pic.twitter.com/vedIq0Upvo

— Liverpool FC (@LFC) May 23, 2021

There were emotional scenes at the Etihad Stadium after Sergio Aguero made his final appearance for Man City. And in typical clinical fashion, the deadly marksman came off the bench to net two goals in the 5-0 demolition of Everton. The brace meant the 32-year Argentinian scored 260 goals in 389 games since he joined the club a decade ago. He also had the fastest goal-per-minute ratio of all time in England’s top-flight. Betfred’s Alan Firkins said: “The world and his better half were on Aguero to score at any time at the Etihad, and within about 15 minutes of coming on as a second-half sub he’d coolly bagged a couple. City will miss him dreadfully, but not, I suspect, the bookmaking fraternity! One of the greats, no question.” Talking of Betfred, one customer saved up all his luck until the last weekend of the season by correctly predicting the results of all 10 games. The 57-year-old bricklayer from Devizes scooped £13,774 from a £2 bet after making his selections in under 30 seconds, the bookmaker revealed. And the firm had another chunky pay-out on the gee-gees after one punter from Derby landed £93,000 from a £4 Lucky 31 (five singles, 10 doubles, 10 trebles, five four-folds and an accumulator). Firkins said it was “pretty tough on the racing front in every respect”, especially with jockey Silvestre de Sousa “on fire” with him landing a three-timer at Goodwood. Meanwhile, on Saturday, Mac Swiney took the Irish 2,000 Guineas at the Curragh and the €228,000 (£197,000) first prize. The Jim Bolger-trained 8/1-shot kept on well to beat stablemate Poetic Flair (5/1) by a short head, while 7/2 favourite Lucky Vega could only manage fourth. “Lucky Vega failed to fire somewhat, leaving us nicely in the black,” said Kindred’s Gill. The following day, Empress Josephine sprung a surprise by winning the 1,000 Guineas at 14/1, ahead of Joan of Arc (9/2) and No Speak Alexander (13/2).

Jim Bolger one-two! Mac Swiney holds off Poetic Flare to win the Irish 2000 Guineas 🏆 pic.twitter.com/Q0gbmaDxzG

— At The Races (@AtTheRaces) May 22, 2021

Finally, there was a massive upset in the golf as Phil Mickelson landed the PGA Championship at the ripe old age of 50, two shots ahead of Brooks Koepka. Ranked 116th in the world before the tournament at Kiawah Island in South Carolina, Mickelson became the oldest ever player to win a major. This was his sixth major triumph in a career that spans almost 30 years. With odds of 250/1 available before the event, the layers had not given “Lefty” much of a chance. However, Gill said Kindred ended up “marginally down” on the outright result due to a few “shrewd punters” who backed Mickelson.

Priced at 250/1 pre-tournament…

Sixth major title at 50 years old, the oldest major winner ever and the fourth golfer in PGA Tour history to win in four different decades.

Phil Mickelson appreciation tweet. pic.twitter.com/4rglenbYsX

— oddschecker (@oddschecker) May 24, 2021

Rupert Adams of William Hill said: “Phil was actually surprisingly well backed by the £5/£10 major golf punters. Therefore, it was not great at all. That said, on Saturday evening and Sunday morning there was a load of cash around for Brooks Koepka, so again no complaints.” According to DraftKings Sportsbook, one customer bet $1,000 on Mickelson at 300/1 and another had $364 on at 250/1. His price to win on the outright market was the largest for a major since South African Louis Oosthuizen topped the leaderboard at the British Open in 2010. Mickelson was matched for a few quid at 999/1 on the Betfair Exchange, although a few thousand pounds was matched between odds of 499/1 and 549/1. Those unfortunate layers won’t be feeling especially chipper this Monday morning.