There are six video games left in an English Premier League season that has witnessed the tightest three-way title race in latest reminiscence. However one UK sportsbook has seen sufficient.
Manchester Metropolis rejoice throughout a 5-1 rout of Luton City on Saturday. However is the title race actually over, as Betfred’s Fred Accomplished insinuates? (Picture: Eurosport)
Betfred introduced Monday that it might pay out on all bets for Manchester Metropolis to win the league. That’s regardless of the defending champions main each Arsenal and Liverpool by simply two factors with a complete of 18 nonetheless up for grabs.
The promised payout, which exceeds £750K (US$932K), was introduced after a possible watershed second final weekend. The extent is so excessive within the EPL today – and the desk so finely poised — that failure to win each single recreation is a calamity for any title chaser.
Fantastic Margins
First, Liverpool, which has led the desk for a lot of the season, shocked followers by shedding at house to Crystal Palace on Sunday.
Subsequent up, Arsenal had the possibility to drag a degree away from Metropolis and three forward of Liverpool simply hours later by beating fourth-place Aston Villa, once more at house.
Forward of the sport, the Gunners have been unbeaten within the calendar yr, with 10 wins and one draw (towards Metropolis), scoring 38 targets and conceding simply 4 throughout that interval. This was champion-winning kind, but it surely failed to indicate towards Villa.
Arsenal drained noticeably within the second half and conceded twice late within the recreation for an sudden loss.
Betfred’s implication is that Arsenal and Liverpool, amid a grueling “run in” to the top of the season, have merely run out of steam, whereas Metropolis has simply moved into fifth gear.
With six titles within the final 10 years, the reigning champion has a behavior of hitting peak kind simply when it issues. Metropolis comfortably beat Luton City 5-1 on Saturday.
“I watched each the Liverpool and Arsenal video games yesterday and, for me, it’s recreation over as a result of Manchester Metropolis are going to win the Premier League title this yr. There’s no hazard to that,” mentioned Betfred’s 81-year-old founder Fred Accomplished in a press release.
Advertising Stunt
Accomplished pioneered the betting trade advertising stunt of “paying out early” on main sporting occasions. And whereas it might need landed Betfred some precious PR through the years within the type of free column inches, it hasn’t at all times labored out.
The primary time Accomplished tried it was 1998 when Manchester United have been 12 factors forward of Arsenal and gave the impression to be cruising to a fifth EPL title. However the Gunners put collectively a run of 10 consecutive wins, which included beating United at Previous Trafford, to grab the title dramatically by a single level.
This time round, there may be not one, however two groups, chasing the league chief, and so they’re separated by simply two factors — and Metropolis has some powerful video games forward. No matter Betfred’s advertising ploy, neutrals will hope Liverpool and Arsenal chase the Residents to the wire to maintain this thrilling season alive.
