Paddy Power pays out too early

On August 14th after Tiger Woods had taken a first round lead in the USPGA at Hazeltine National Golf Club we alerted you to the fact that Bwin were offering 11/13 on any player except Tiger winning. After two days he had a four stroke lead and PaddyPower were so convinced that he would not lose they paid out all bets on Tiger to win; a move which cost £1.25 million. On the previous 14 occasions that Tiger held the lead after 36 holes he went on to win the event but 15 was just one too many. A spokesman from the bookmaker said “hey, 1 for 15 isn’t  too bad”, “Unfortunately for us, the one time he doesn’t close the deal we end up with an Ostrich size egg all over our face”. The eventual winner was Y. E. Yang from South Korea whom very few will have backed but you could still have made money if you had taken the Bwin offer. Paddy Power being an Irish bookmaker said that it could have been worse still if Padraig Harrington had won due the number of bets taken on the Irishman. Paddy Power is not new to paying out early; it did so a couple of times on bets on Barak Obama during the US election process; “it’s something we like to do from time to time to prove to our punters that we’re willing to take a chance too” said the spokesman. “ Our bettors take a chance every day when they place a bet. We like to show that we’re not afraid to gamble either. And we’re usually right more often than we’re wrong”. He went on to admit that it had not been a good day when saying “This still ranks as one of the more idiotic things we’ve ever done. It takes a special kind of dimwit to turn what should have been a great day for us into one of the worst”

Asked if he would do it again he said “Chances are that if Tiger is in that position again, he’s going to win,” “Would we be stupid enough to do it again? Probably. Watch this space it could happen”.

Not too often you get paid out on a losing bet !!