hno:
Bookmaker's bad gamble costs itself $2.1 million
August 17, 2009
RACHEL BLOUNT
The Irish bookmaking firm Paddy Power was so certain Tiger Woods would win the PGA Championship that it paid out $2.1 million in winnings to Woods' backers before Woods teed off in Saturday's third round.
The firm has made early payouts before, and Woods' four-shot lead prompted it to try the strategy again -- which should yield in free publicity what it cost in payoffs to bettors.
"It takes a special kind of dimwit to turn what should have been our best-ever golf result into our worst,'' the firm said in a news release Sunday night. "Paddy Power punters are obviously the big winners here and have made like bandits getting paid out on Tiger as a winner. Our only saving grace is that [Irishman Padraig] Harrington didn't do the business, thank God!''
Those who favored Yang made out even better. His pre-tournament odds with Paddy Power were 150-1, and he was 16-1 going into Sunday's final round.
August 17, 2009
RACHEL BLOUNT
The Irish bookmaking firm Paddy Power was so certain Tiger Woods would win the PGA Championship that it paid out $2.1 million in winnings to Woods' backers before Woods teed off in Saturday's third round.
The firm has made early payouts before, and Woods' four-shot lead prompted it to try the strategy again -- which should yield in free publicity what it cost in payoffs to bettors.
"It takes a special kind of dimwit to turn what should have been our best-ever golf result into our worst,'' the firm said in a news release Sunday night. "Paddy Power punters are obviously the big winners here and have made like bandits getting paid out on Tiger as a winner. Our only saving grace is that [Irishman Padraig] Harrington didn't do the business, thank God!''
Those who favored Yang made out even better. His pre-tournament odds with Paddy Power were 150-1, and he was 16-1 going into Sunday's final round.
They have been doing this for years - usually on things like Man Utd or Chelsea to win the Premiership and they get off to a storming start or sometimes on Rangers or Celtic to win the Scottish League.
I think once they settled the Premiership as early as October and then had the rest of the seasons worth of free publicity whenever the particular team they settled on won or lost as it was nearly always mentioned in the papers match reports...
I think once they settled the Premiership as early as October and then had the rest of the seasons worth of free publicity whenever the particular team they settled on won or lost as it was nearly always mentioned in the papers match reports...
This may be the case with the website, but dont forget that Paddy's has a few hundred betting shops scattered around the UK and Ireland as well - so while their online hold may not have been $2.1million, then if you add in all the money take at the shops as well then I can easily see it being this high...
