Punters profit after great day for favourites
FOOTBALL punters enjoyed an excellent Saturday as a host of winning favourites in the top four English divisions left bookmakers reeling.
The 12 most popular selections on Coral's shop coupons all won and spokesman Simon Clare said: "It was pretty much as bad as it gets for us and we are already looking at UK betting industry losses in excess of £25m.
"West Ham and Manchester City are likely to be the final legs in thousands of multiple bets that are still alive so their matches take on multi-million pound significance."
Other firms were also feeling the pain after only four of the 3pm kick-offs in the Premier League and Football League ended in draws. Alex Donohue of Ladbrokes said: "It was desperate - 15 of the 17 best-backed teams on our coupon won."
Premier League leaders Chelsea were among the winning favourites and they are 4-11 to win the title after a 5-0 romp at Swansea.
Crystal Palace boosted their chances of avoiding relegation by coming from 2-0 down to beat Burnley 3-2 at Turf Moor. Palace were matched at 79-1 in-play on Betfair and are out to 4-1 to go down.
QPR and Leicester lost to Manchester United and Stoke respectively and, like Burnley, are odds-on to go down.
Hills make QPR boss Harry Redknapp 5-4 to leave the club before their next fixture, against Stoke on January 31.
Aston Villa slipped to a 2-0 home defeat against Liverpool and are 5-2 to be relegated.
Southampton compounded the layers’ misery as the 7-5 favourites won 2-1 at Newcastle. The Saints are 11-8 with Coral to finish in the top four this season with Manchester United 2-5, Liverpool 7-2 and Tottenham 9-2.
Diego Costa is 8-11 for the Golden Boot after scoring two of Chelsea’s five goals at Swansea. Two of Costa’s rivals go head-to-head on Sunday and bet365 make Arsenal’s Alexis Sanchez 10-3 to outscore Sergio Aguero, who is 13-8 to win the goals match bet. The tie is even-money.
