Millions Strong Bet365 Have a World Cup Final to Forget
It would appear bet365 had a World Cup final to forget. With 80 million customers, the Stoke-on-Trent-based company probably took more bets on Sunday’s final than any other online bookmaker. But almost every concession and bonus the firm offered had to be honored. It gave punters a great opportunity to show a handsome profit.
Give that man a cigar! Rodrigo De Paul celebrates in style after his country won the FIFA World Cup Qatar final. Many bet365 customers were also happy. ©GettyImages
The history books will forever show the 90-minute result was a 2-2 draw. But bet365 customers that backed Argentina were paid out as winners after 36 minutes when the South American side went 2-nil up. That bonus came as part of bet365’s ‘2 Goals Ahead Early Payout’ feature.
A Super Result for Mbappe and Messi Bets
With winnings paid into accounts, punters could re-invest with over 50 minutes of normal match time remaining. A second regular bet365 offer, ‘Extra Time Extra Chance’ – whereby if the match had been won in extra-time bet selections on a winning team would have been paid out (in bet credits) – did not result in more pain for the company.
However, super-boosted odds on ‘Mbappe and Messi to have one or more shots on target’ must have been a big loser for the privately owned bookmaker. It was a heavily promoted offer by bet365, and the firm enhanced odds on that outcome from 4/6 to 6/4.
In other markets, Lionel Messi was a 15/2 ‘winner’ to score two or more goals. In bet builders, Kylian Mbappe was 66/1 to score a hat-trick. But the pain for bet365 started long before Angel Di Maria put Argentina 2-0 ahead in the 35th minute or these two greats began to find the back of the net.
Site and App Issues Were an Own Goal
Real-time problem and outage monitoring website Downdetector began receiving reports that bet365’s website was down at 2.27 pm, 33 minutes before the World Cup final was due to kick off. Between 2.57 pm and 12 minutes into the game, the tracking service recorded 4,161 reports of site issues that prevented bet365 customers from viewing or logging in to the online sportsbook.
The reaction to the outage on social media, particularly Twitter, suggests this figure was just the tip of the iceberg. An error message on the operator’s site did apologize to customers for the outage, as did the bet365 Twitter account at 3.53 pm.
Forty minutes later, a second Tweet read: “All site/App issues should now be resolved. Thanks for your patience.” But complaints appeared to recede from around 3.40 pm. It suggests the issue had been resolved beforehand and allowed bet365 and its customers to trade in-play on the bulk of the prolonged World Cup final.
FA Say Southgate Is Staying Put
Within hours of Gonzalo Montiel’s decisive World Cup goal, bet365 had opened several special betting markets relating to the English national team and the Premier League. The prices on most potential outcomes – all pertaining to happenings in 2023 – are relatively big, but the likelihood of many of the betting offers to come to fruition appears slim.
For example, 8/1 is on offer about Gareth Southgate managing one of Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham, or Arsenal in 2023. But, on Sunday, FA chief executive Mark Bullingham announced: “We [the Football Association] are delighted to confirm that Gareth Southgate is continuing as England manager and will lead our Euro 2024 campaign.”
BREAKING: The FA confirm Gareth Southgate is continuing as England Manager and will lead the Euro 2024 campaign 🏴 pic.twitter.com/UQxDoHGH2p
— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) December 18, 2022
That statement dashes the prospect of Graham Potter becoming the England manager in 2023. It is something bet365 quotes on 6/1. Lionel Messi playing for an English Premier League (EPL) side in 2023 is a little more realistic. It is quoted on 4/1.
Premier League Longshots Are United
In price order, here are other 2023 football specials currently available at bet365 sportsbook: 9/1 a female to referee an EPL match in 2023; 11/1 any goalkeeper to score an EPL goal; 11/1 any player to score five or more goals in an EPL match; 12/1 a female to be appointed as an EPL or EFL manager; 12/1 Steven Gerrard to manage Liverpool.
It is 16/1 that any EPL team can go through 2023 unbeaten; 18/1 for any team to score 10 or more goals in a Premier League match, and the biggest price proposition of all is the 20/1 on Wayne Rooney managing Manchester United.
Will any of these propositions come to fruition? It is as doubtful as the odds suggest. But it was doubtful Leicester would win the Premier League title during the 2015/16 season – and that gem famously paid off at odds of 5,000/1!
