Even though they are known for their publicity stunts, it was a bit of a surprise when Paddy Power paid out on Erik ten Hag being the first Premier League manager to be sacked in the 2022/23 season.
That’s because they made the call after only the Dutchman’s second game in charge – hardly giving him a chance, were they?
He had just lost 4-0 to lowly Brentford though, and with Cristiano Ronaldo in the team no less, but still, two games is hardly a fair shake of the stick.
What’s more, at the time, Erik ten Hag was still priced up at 20/1 to be the first manager sacked in the Premier League, so you have to question why they did it.
In reality, it was probably a fairly cheap publicity stunt that capitalised on the bad result, and the rumour at the time that Man Utd were a cursed club.
On top of that, it meant Paddy Power could offer new markets on which manager would take over from ten Hag, which they promptly did, starting with Mauricio Pochettino at 50/1.
Now, the conspiracy theorist inside me thinks that if they didn’t actually believe ten Hag would be sacked, they might have paid out in order to attract attention for these new manager markets, which they didn’t think had any chance of coming true.
In other words, they could take bets on markets that were so speculative they didn’t really exist in the real world, so any money wagered was easy takings for them, because their risk on that market was so low. This would also explain the long odds, there to attract punters who would see it as value.
????EARLY PAYOUT????
With Man Utd losing 4-0 at half time to Brentford, we have PAID OUT on Erik Ten Hag to be the first Premier League manager to get the sack.
— Paddy Power (@paddypower) August 13, 2022
Just two weeks after Paddy Power paid out on Erik ten Hag, Scott Parker was sacked by Bournemouth having been demolished 9-0 by Liverpool, so the early payout was a ‘mistake’ on the face of it.
I doubt the bookie took a great deal of money on the market though, so as far as early payouts go, they weren’t exactly sticking their necks out.