Tiger loss costs bookie £1.25m

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  • August 17, 2009

Paddy Power were left reeling after their £1.25m early payout on Tiger Woods to win the USPGA spectacularly backfired.

Bungling bookies Paddy Power were left reeling on Sunday night after their £1.25m early payout on Tiger Woods to win the USPGA spectacularly backfired when the world number one was unable to see off the challenge of YE Yang at Hazeltine National Golf Club.

Paddy Power, famous for their early payouts, took the unprecedented step of paying out over £1.25m to backers of Woods before the world number one teed off for round three of the USPGA on Saturday afternoon.

At the time, Tiger was four shots clear at the top of the leaderboard and was a red-hot 1/5 favourite to win the final major of the year.

But despite having won all the eight majors he’d previously led at the halfway mar, Tiger went cold over the weekend, resulting in the bookies’ record breaking seven-figure cock-up, the biggest ever mistake of its kind.

Paddy Power said: “It takes a special kind of dimwit to turn what should have been our best ever golf result into our worst. Paddy Power punters are obviously the big winners here and have made like bandits getting paid out on Tiger as a winner.

“Our only saving grace is that Harrington didn’t do the business, thank God!”

Yang was available at odds of 150/1 with Paddy Power at the start of the tournament and at 16/1 before the final round.

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