SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
With three days until the most anticipated boxing event of recent memory, Paddy Power has already rewarded backers of Floyd Mayweather by paying out on the American fighter.
The Irish bookmaker has made the £250,000 payout this morning, in spite of nearly 80% of punters backing the two-weight UFC champion Conor McGregor.
A spokesman for Paddy Power said: “We’re spinning the roulette wheel a bit here – as getting it wrong would see a serious Mac Attack on my bank balance.
“But, when you’re backing Mayweather, you’ve basically covered the whole board anyway.
“Patriotism aside, we are paying out early on a Mayweather victory – because we checked, and only one of them is a boxer.”
When fight markets opened, unsurprisingly the man considered the most skilled boxer of this generation, Mayweather was a heavy favourite, however a surge of bets on McGregor has led to his price shortening to just 10/3, with Floyd coming moving out to a generous 1/4.
The Irish bookmaker has predicted that more than £200million in bets will be taken on the fight, with most of the money expected to come in the 36-hours before the opening bell.
Prior to this, the biggest boxing market was when Mayweather outpointed Manny Pacquiao in 2015, however, this event has more than trebled the interest of that fight, with bookmakers expecting it to be not only the most popular boxing event of all time, but also the most popular sports betting event of the year.
