Early PGA payouts cost Paddy Power millions

Posted by admin | Gambling news | Sunday 23 August 2009 9:51 pm

If you were upset to see golf pro Tiger Woods fall short again at this year’s U.S. PGA Championship, then you certainly weren’t alone, but your disappointment probably didn’t come with the $2.12 million price tag that online sportsbook Paddy Power’s did.

It’s safe to say this will be the end of Paddy Power’s early payouts. On August 15, the sportsbook posted a cheeky entry to their own blog, jokingly implying that they were crazy to offer early payouts on Woods-win bets, then insisting that Woods was just too good to be defeated. “Do you think we’re going to be caught with our trousers down,” their writer jokingly asked. Turns out they were.

Last Monday, Paddy Power released a less lighthearted statement in which they referred to themselves as “dimwitted.” Bettors that put their money on the actual winner—Y.E. Yang—before the beginning of the tournament made off with payments on odds of 150-to-1, while those that forecasted his win in the final round will get paid on odds of 16-to-1. They weren’t the only winners though; hundreds of Woods fans profited from Paddy Power’s foul prediction to the tune of 1.5 million Euros.