Sky Bet Cuts Payout Odds on Burnley

Bookmakers are usually very deliberate in their approach to doing things. Rarely will a bookmaker choose to change odds even slightly – much less drastically – without warning. Yet, this is exactly what is happening with Sky Bets. The bookmaker has chosen to change the odds on the Burnley Football Club’s chances of winning the title in the Premier League. The odds change was pretty dramatic. The change reflects a drop from 5,000 to 1 to 1,000 to one. An 80% change is pretty massive, but Sky Bet felt it had no choice. A massive amount of bets has come in and a tremendous portion of the bets are wagering on the Burnley Clarets to win the title.

If the Clarets do win, paying off 5,000 to 1 to the winners could prove devastating. U.K. sportsbooks recently suffered huge losses in horse racing. Apparently, Sky Bet does not want to be a part of that. No business wants to put itself in a position to lose a massive amount of money. Bookmakers are not excluded from this club of common sense business economics.

Additionally, the odds of 5,000 to 1 are based on the doubt the club could pull off a win. 1,000 to 1 odds are not exactly great. The club is still considered a major long shot. Yet, it is going to be less financially painful to pay £50,000 on a £50 bet than £250,000.

A ton of wins on 1,000 to 1 odds would still have a dire effect on Sky Bet. Whether or not the company has to pay out massive money all hinges on the Burnley Football Clubs’ ability to pull out a massive underdog win. Can they do it? The odds are really against this happening. As the recent events in horseracing show, stranger and unexpected things do occur in the world of sportsbook wagering.

The Leicester City Football Club is heavily favored (by some) to win the Premiere League title. Sky Bet was shocked, however, when it discovered the number of wagers for Leicester were much lower in volume than expected. The low numbers of Leicester City created an interesting comparison to the massively high numbers for Burnley.

Leicester received about 128 bets around the same time Burnley garnered about 1,000 bets. Needless to say, the bookmaker was shocked by the disparity and never expected such a lack of interest in Leicester. The possibility exists that a lot of not-very-serious wagers may be being placed on Burnley because of the huge odds.

Wagering £10 with the chance of winning £50,000 is not a bad shot in the dark. Even though the odds have been dropped to pay £10,000, the payout is still pretty massive and the amount of the loss minimal.

Regardless, Sky Bet would still have to pay out on those 1,000 “not serious” bets. They are legitimate bets. The bets do have to be honored by the sportsbook.