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Betway is breathing a huge sigh of relief thanks to Will Grigg's 79th minute strike for League One Wigan that sunk Manchester City's hopes of a historic quadruple on Monday night.
Counting the cost of City losing the game, their chance of winning a sixth FA Cup, and all bets placed on Pep Guardiola's men landing the four major trophies, the "on-fire" Northern Irishman has saved the leading online bookmaker in the region of £1 million.
Betway had a handful of punters who netted four- and five-figure sums from backing the Latics at 16/1, but the elimination of Man City from the FA Cup has put Betway well into the black on this occasion.
Across the U.K. bookmaking industry as a whole, Betway estimate that anywhere between £10 million to £25 million worth of liabilities have been written off.
Betway's Alan Alger said, "Man City had been well-backed for the quadruple since October, with some punters on at as big as 700/1 all the way down to 14/1. In late February, with still no sign of the sky blue train stopping, we were staring down the barrel of a heavy six-figure pay out on the quadruple, so last night's result came as a great relief.
"As you'd expect, we took plenty of lumpy bets on City to overcome Wigan last night, and they were also very well-backed to win the FA Cup itself. Overall, we've been saved a loss in the region of £1 million, and many other firms will be feeling the same.
"The magic of the FA Cup has sprinkled a bit of stardust on the bookmaking industry, that's for sure. I think it's safe to say that the bookies have saved somewhere between £10 million to £25 million thanks to Will Grigg and Wigan Athletic."
