Sod it – we’re paying out on Celtic winning next season’s Scottish Premiership title. #YouBeauty
— Paddy Power (@paddypower) July 4, 2017
The Scottish Premiership isn’t known as the most competitive football league in the world, indeed, since the 1984/85 season it has only ever been won by two clubs; Celtic and Rangers.
What’s more, Celtic were on a 6 titles in a row romp when this early payout occurred, and Rangers had just been knocked out of the Europa League by a part time team from Luxembourg, so it wasn’t much of a gamble for the bookie who pushed the button.
The Scottish are a passionate bunch though, so when Irish bookmaker Paddy Power decided that the Premiership was decided before it had even begun, quite understandably some fans at other clubs got a little bit upset.
Others bit back at what was clearly a marketing ploy by Paddy Power, with one sarcastically tweeting:
“Massive call at 1/16”
While another, also mocking how obvious the result was going to be, wrote:
“Were you even taking bets on that?”
The situation at the time, was that Celtic were coming off the back of such a successful 2016/17 campaign that it seemed impossible that they would not do the same again.
As it happened though, they weren’t quite so dominant this time around, although they did still win.
The 2016/17 season had seen them amass 106 points across an unbeaten season, with Aberdeen coming in second a massive 30 points behind them.
Third place Rangers were still rebuilding after their bankruptcy and this was their first year back in the top flight, and as we know, there isn’t any other real competition in the Scottish Premiership.
The 2017/18 season finished with the same top 3 line up, but Celtic ended with a much less convincing 9 point lead over Aberdeen, so Paddy Power must have had their fingers crossed behind their backs at times.
They got away with it in the end though, although let’s be honest, it probably only cost them about £17.50 at odds of 1/16.