At USPGA, Yang beats Tiger, Paddy Power beats self
Paddy Power prides itself on often being the first online bookmaker to pay out on proposition bets and often dodges a bullet when punters might otherwise be tempted to pile onto a low-paying big favorite; perhaps the most extreme (and extreme in foresight and money saved, no doubt) recent example came when the Paddy agreed to pay all punters who’d backed Barack Obama to become the Democratic Party’s nominee for US President – less than a week after a New Hampshire primary he lost.
Not this time, though. Sure, Paddy Power paid punters who backed Tiger to take the tournament – two weeks and two round early – but this time it was a case of premature exultation. Paddy Power paid out €1.5 million to those who said Tiger would win, though he lost.
Of course, Paddy Power was saved when 150/1 longshot Yang won the tournament as opposed to, say, the “heavily-backed Padraig Harrington,” and thus had to pay out little more on the championship result.
Neck-and-neck in the race for best line on the debacle is between Paddy Power itself, which called the decision as that of “a special kind of dimwit,” and the tabloid’s desciption of the error as a “double bogey boob.”