Spooked bookie pays out on Dragons
ONE of Australia's leading sports bookmakers is so convinced the NRL minor premiership race is over he has paid out all bets on Wayne Bennett's Dragons - three months before the end of the season proper.
In a sensational move labelled a "joke" by St George Illawarra Dragons chief executive Peter Doust, Sportsbet boss Matt Tripp said yesterday's decision to cough up more than $50,000 to punters who had already backed the competition frontrunners would hopefully stimulate betting on other options.
The Dragons' sensational form has strangled betting on the minor premiership.
Tripp said he realised nothing would stop the Dragons winning their third straight minor premiership after he watched most of the club's Origin stars back up and beat the
Wests Tigers.
"I thought if there was ever going to be a weakness it was going to be post-Origin, but they again performed against the
Wests Tigers. They don't look like having a slump and they've got plenty of depth," Tripp said.
However, Doust was stunned when informed about the early five-figure payout by The Daily Telegraph.
"That has to be a joke. I find that amazing given the circumstances of the competition. We're not even halfway through and I find that silly," Doust said.
"We're all doing as much as we can to get through this rep period. There is so much to be accomplished, so we're not getting ahead of ourselves in that context. We're very happy with the way the season is unfolding but it's very even and very rigorous."
But Tripp said: "Punters may as well enjoy their cash now as we'd be paying them in a few months anyway.
"You wouldn't give Usain Bolt a 10m head start over the 100, which is exactly what their rivals face based on the Dragons' current form."
The Dragons are $1.22 for the minor premiership with TAB Sportsbet and the betting giant is holding roughly $100,000 on the option.
TAB Sportsbet's Matt Jenkins said the Dragons opened $4.50 with one bet of $10,000 at $4 snapped up on March 9.
Jenkins said his organisation was holding a $500 multibet, which features the Dragons' minor premiership, Collingwood to win the AFL minor premiership, Barcelona to win the Champions League and Japan the Asian Cup, with the latter two having already saluted.The multi will return $70,875 if the Dragons and Pies triumph. Michael Sullivan's Sportingbet said it had not received many bets on the minor premiership market but "punters had invested 10 times that amount on actual premiership betting".
Punters consider Manly and Melbourne, $6 and $8 respectively with TAB Sportsbet, as the main title threats to the Dragons, who are at $3.
