The usual suspects paid out early in the 2024/25 season, paying winnings to lucky Premier League winner bettors 11 weeks shy of the end.
Paddy Power were first to announce the news, although they didn’t close the market, with Betfred following suit a day later.
The former did not disclose how much it was going to cost them, but Betfred proudly stated that they were taking a £1 million gamble, although backed it up with a strong belief in their decision.
Fred Done, Betfred’s owner, had even given Liverpool industry leading odds of 9/1 at the start of the season. The Manchester United fan even went on camera boasting that Liverpool fans would be paying for his holiday when their bets lost:
It must have stung to accept defeat.
Both bookmakers have form in getting early payouts wrong, though, and it will cost them twice if that happens this time.
Betfred have paid out early on the Premier League on ten occasions, getting it wrong in 1998 and in 2012, whereas Paddy Power famously incorrectly paid out on Hilary Clinton to win the US election in 2016 and on Tiger Woods to win the PGA Championship in 2009.
Arsenal 0 – 1 West Ham
It was Arsenal’s loss to West Ham that tipped the scales.
The Gunners fell short of the mark losing 0-1 on home turf to their London rivals, dropping 3 points in the process and giving the Reds an even bigger lead.
It did Arsenal’s reputation as bottlers no favours either.
Jarrod Bowen got on the end of a lovely ball in from Aaron Wan-Bissaka to head the Hammers in front, and Arsenal couldn’t pull one back. It didn’t help that they went down to 10 men in the 73rd minute.
It was a bitter pill for Arsenal to swallow – they should have won looking at the game stats – but with two of their main attacking players injured (Havertz and Saka) they just didn’t have the fire power.
With Liverpool boasting 64 points to Arsenal’s 53, an 11 point gap had grown. Arsenal did have a game in hand, but Liverpool had been on incredible form and clearly, Paddy Power and Betfred couldn’t see them losing enough ground with just 11 games left in the season.
While it was still mathematically possible for Liverpool to lose their lead, no one believed it would happen.