Paddy Power counts the costs of its early Clinton payout

Paddy Power has suffered its biggest ever political payout, after being hit for over $4.5 million by customers who backed Donald Trump to become the 45^th US President. The Irish bookmaker is counting the costs of its decision to pay out £800,000 on a Hillary Clinton victory back in October.

Aided by the reopened FBI investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server as US Secretary of State, Trump defied pre-election polling to claim swing states, including Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania. His shock victory in Wisconsin put him over the 270 electoral college votes needed to reach the White House.

Lewis Davey, a spokesman for Paddy Power, said: “We’re in the business of making predictions and decided to put our neck on the line by paying out early on Hillary Clinton, but boy did we get it wrong.

“We’ve been well and truly thumped by Trump, with his victory leaving us with the biggest political payout in the company’s history and some very, very expensive egg on our faces.”

Undeterred by the shock result, Paddy Power has started a series of ‘Trump specials’ for its customers. This includes pricing Trump at 4/1 to be re-elected in 2020, 20/1 to build a wall spanning ‘the entirety of the US-Mexican border, and Evens to make Russia his first international visit.