According to William Hill, Wimbledon is set to produce a record betting turnover of up to £75 million industry wide, eclipsing last year\’s £50m. “Tennis betting has been serving up a tremendous performance recently and comfortably outstrips betting turnover on the likes of cricket, rugby and golf,” said Hill\’s spokesman Graham Sharpe.
In separate news, William Hill opened a book on who will be the one to kill off Harry Potter in the seventh book due to be published soon. “The phones have not stopped ringing since J.K mentioned that Harry might be killed off and the general consensus seems to be that Harry is the final Horcrux and to ensure that Voldermort dies he will need to be sacrificed,” said Hill\’s spokesman Rupert Adams.
The first time William Hill opened a book on a whodunnit was in the 1970\’s when they bet on, \’Who shot J.R\’. At the time over 25 million people were watching Dallas and when arch villain J.R. Ewing got shot in the last episode of the series it became a subject of national debate. It proved so popular that it actually took more money than horse racing in the last few days of betting. “Who shot J.R was the first ever reality T.V betting and remains by far the biggest in real terms – it was like Grand National day,” added Adams.
Elsewhere, Paddy Power refunded £300,000 to England fans and £200,000 to Argentina backers. Punters had their bacon saved by the bookie’s pre-tournament Money-Back Special which pledged to refund all losing bets on any team knocked out of the tournament on penalties. “The matches ending up as draws are great results, but this penalty shootout special is costing us a fortune – almost half a million quid over the weekend. It was a good idea at the time,” said a spokesman for the irish bookmaker.
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