Betway are breathing a huge sigh of relief thanks to Will Grigg’s 79th minute strike for League One Wigan that sunk Manchester City’s hopes of a historic quadruple on Monday night.
Counting the cost of City losing the game, their chance of winning a sixth FA Cup and all bets placed on Pep Guardiola’s men landing the four major trophies, the ‘on-fire’ Northern Irishman has saved the leading online bookmaker in the region of £1 million.
Betway had a handful of punters who netted four and five figure sums from backing the Latics at 16/1, but the elimination of Man City from the FA Cup has put Betway well into the black on this occasion.
Across the UK bookmaking industry as a whole, Betway estimate that anywhere between £10m-£25m worth of liabilities have been written off.
Betway’s Alan Alger, said: “Man City had been well-backed for the quadruple since October, with some punters on at as big as 700/1 all the way down to 14/1. In late February, with still no sign of the sky blue train stopping, we were staring down the barrel of a heavy six-figure pay-out on the quadruple so last night’s result came as a great relief.
“As you’d expect, we took plenty of lumpy bets on City to overcome Wigan last night, and they were also very well-backed to win the FA Cup itself. Overall, we’ve been saved a loss in the region of £1 million, and many other firms will be feeling the same.
“The magic of the FA Cup has sprinkled a bit of stardust on the bookmaking industry, that’s for sure. I think it’s safe to say that the bookies have saved somewhere between £10m-£25m thanks to Will Grigg and Wigan Athletic.”
Betway – Football
FA Cup Outright:
| Manchester United | 9/4 |
| Tottenham | 11/4 |
| Chelsea | 4/1 |
| Leicester | 9/1 |
| Southampton | 11/1 |
| Swansea | 25/1 |
| Brighton | 25/1 |
| Wigan | 50/1 |
| Sheffield Wednesday | 150/1 |
| Rochdale | 750/1 |
Manchester City in 2017/18:
| Treble | 9/2 |