BREAKING NEWS: Christmas has come early! We’ve PAID OUT on Chelsea to win the Premier League!! Read more –> http://t.co/MH7c8z5Pkg
— Paddy Power (@paddypower) November 21, 2014
Although not quite as bold as their 2005/06 early payout on Chelsea, when Paddy Power announced they were paying out on bets for Chelsea to win the Premier League just 11 games into the 2014/14 season, people took notice.
This was the whole point of course. The bookie wanted the publicity, and they also had conviction in their prediction.
At this point in time the Blues were only 4 points clear at the top of the table, with Southampton of all teams in 2nd, and Manchester City in 3rd. There was no way Southampton would pose them a threat (this was a season before Leicester’s famous win), but they would need to fend of Man City.
It cost Paddy Power £400k, but if they had made the right call, it would be saving them a fortune in the long run, on top of the free publicity.
Reportedly, one punter placed a £16,000 wager at 2/5 and was due a £22,400 return, while at least 44 others placed bets of £1,000 or more. In fact, more than a third of all outright bets on the Premier League had gone on Chelsea that year.
Nevertheless, if Paddy Power had got it wrong they would have had to pay out again on the actual winner, as well as losing the £400k they had already paid out. Luckily for them though, Mourinho’s boys were up to the task.
Chelsea’s Route to Premier League Success
Chelsea had gone unbeaten for the first 14 games of the 2014/15 season, winning all but 3 games which they drew, all of which were away from Stamford Bridge.
Their first defeat came at the hands of Newcastle United at St James Park, falling 2-1 in a very physical games that involved six yellow cards and 1 red all in the 2nd half.
This helped Man City close the gap at the top to just 3 points, with Man United not a million miles behind them.
Their second loss came a month later in a 5-3 thriller away at London rivals, Tottenham Hotspur. They remained at the top of the table purely based on alphabetical order, because by this point Manchester City had caught them up. Incredibly, they had the same record of 14 wins, 4 draws, and 2 losses, plus an identical goal difference having both scored 44 times and conceded 19.
At this point Paddy Power may have been sweating, but Chelsea went on a 16 game unbeaten run before their third and final defeat of the season. By that point though, the title was already theirs.
Manchester City had fallen away and hit a very bad patch in March and April, topped off with a 4-2 drumming at Old Trafford, allowing Chelsea to build their lead to an eventual 8 points.
Jose Mourinho had done it again, at his second stint in charge of the Blues.