Tiger Woods has made sure that European-facing sportsbooks have more in common with Elin Nordegren than ever after he contrived to cost most of them six-figure sums. Europe entered the final day of the Ryder Cup with a deficit rivaling that of Greece and how the Mediterranean country will want to use their continent’s golfers as inspiration.
Jose Maria-Olazabal’s team had already retained the Ryder Cup after German Martin Kaymer holed his putt on the 18th and the final pairing of Woods and Francesco Molinari looked to be going the way of the former World Number One. Woods then missed a putt to hand a half to Molinari meant Europe won outright and the draw the bookies had hoped for was but a memory.
“While it was impossible not to get caught up in such a fantastic victory, Woods’ miss resulted in us taking a really heavy beating,” admitted Sky Bet’s Ned Brooker to Sporting Life.
At the same time, a spokesperson from Ladbrokes told MailOnline: “No-one bets on a tie. It cost us just over £650,000 last night on Tiger’s miss. Tiger is not a bookie’s friend this morning. At 8:20pm, Europe were 33/1 to win and USA were 1/50. It was a nightmare result. The USA were heavily backed pre-tournament. We were so close. It was our most expensive one ever.”
Coral, meanwhile, took a £400,000 hit although their best Ryder Cup tempered it as the tills saw some £1million come through showing that it wasn’t all bad.
Paddy Power, the kings of the ambush-marketing stunt, outdid anyone else over the weekend by broadcasting tweets in the sky using planes and egging the Europeans onto victory whilst breaking a record in the process. The 70 million square foot message was the largest ever and included the names of every single European player and 13th man – Seve Ballesteros. The American authorities didn’t see the funny side, with a Tweet from the official Paddy Power Twitter reading: “BREAKING: Feds now threatening our pilots with arrest. Stephen, Maverick, Ice Man & Goose were heroes yesterday! #GoEurope”
Not sure what we mean? Here’s a video:
