Bookmakers cry and pay or record payouts in the history of sports betting

With bookmaker bets somebody needs to lose in order for someone else to win. When bookmakers occur in the number of losers who lost huge sums then it is said about the “black day” or “the most expensive bets” in the history of sports betting.

History knows several such cases when bookmakers had to payout record amounts and frankly speaking were not happy about it.

A good example of such “bookmaker catastrophe” can be matches of the English Premier League played in 2014. The match between Arsenal London vs. Aston Villa as well as the match between Manchester City - Liverpool turned out to be successful for many players, although bookmakers panicked a bit regarding the thought about needing to payout great sums of money. According to the Coral company's representative that weekend was the worst period for British bookmakers from the point of view of losses on football bets. One of Coral's bettors, an unemployed citizen of Scotland won £67 000. Another in his turn got  £40 600, after betting only £2. What is interesting it was the player's birthday, and he could not have dreamt of a better present. According to “Financial Time” losses which were beared by the leading British bookmakers made more than £ 25 million. Additionally a representative of Ladbrokes said that the Saturday match of the Premier League was the best in history, of course from the players point of view. More than 25 thousand bettors got winnings from this bookmaker at that time, and each £5 bet gave a win of £100.

Not only football is so unpredictable and provides unforgettable emotions and unexpected winnings. Golf fans and first of all bookmakers should have been shocked watching the Ryder Cup 2012 when the national team of Europe overcame USA. Even Tyler Woods did not help his team, who in the match against Francesko Molinary lost at the 18th hole what in the end brought a win to the European team. Such situation lead to bookmakers loosing big sums of money. Ladbrokes lost £650 000, and Coral £400 000. A representative of Sky Bet admitted that nobody could have awaited such an outcome, and the fact that happened was a huge shock for everybody, not even taking into account the fact that it impacted the firm's financial situation negatively. Woods let bookmakers down not for the first time. We still remember his win in Liverpool in 2006. Then Woods was not the main favorite of the tournament held in Royal Golf Club Hoylake in Liverpool, and that's why his win lead to bookmakers loosing 10 million pounds. A representative of Ladbrokes called the tournament in Hoylake “the darkest day in the history of golf betting”.

There was no cause for joy for bookmakers which offered bets on horse races, namely for the Melbourne Cup. An amazing win of Mekybe Diva horse brought bookmakers more than 122 million dollars loss in total. Sportingbet's representative announced that the races' results were a big shock for the firm and bookmaker had to pay out more than 2 million dollars. Bookmakers will also recall Barnley Curley, the trainer of four victorious horses during the Great Britain races. Due to the win of all four horses: Eye Of The Tiger, Low Key, Seven Summits and Indus Valley bookmakers suffered record losses, which in total made around 18 million Euro. Paddy Power's representative called it “the darkest day in the history of betting”. In their turn players had many reasons for celebration. A players from London said after the race that he had been regularly following Barnley Curley's achievements for many years and that day became the best for him concerning horse races bets. Moreover Curley trains horses and is a professional gambler whom many bookmakers hate. In 2010 he decided to get round bookmakers with the help of a group of horse races' fans, who placed huge amount of small bets during the whole race day and earned around 3,9 million pounds and totally legal.